News from the Hill

Do you have thoughts about data transparency at the National Institutes of Health? Support for the future biomedical workforce? Diversity of NIH advisory councils? The ASBMB Public Affairs Advisory Committee wants you to weigh in.

Member update

Awards, promotions and more. Find out what's going on in the lives of ASBMB members. Send us your updates.

Chapter leader finds his niche

Jacob Crosser, former president of the Purdue University ASBMB Student Chapter, started college thinking he wanted to study engineering, then he discovered biochemistry.

Shadow gene makes sea mammals vulnerable

University of Washington researchers study why, after certain species moved from land to sea eons ago, their descendants lost the function of an enzyme that can break down a neurotoxin in the pesticide chlorpyrifos.

2018 honor society inductees

The ASBMB honor society (Chi Omega Lambda) recognizes exceptional undergraduate juniors and seniors pursuing degrees in the molecular life sciences at colleges or universi¬ties with ASBMB Student Chapters.

Lipid News: Protein–lipid interactions

John Burke looks at how a new tool, hydrogen–deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, can be used to study how proteins interact with lipid membranes.

MCP: Zika’s cellular neighborhood

University of Toronto researchers report in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics that studying how the virus interacts with host cells can provide insight into how Zika escapes immune signaling and proliferates in the human body.

JLR: Studying links between liver disease, mitochondria

Two recent studies in the Journal of Lipid Research offer new insight into how mitochondrial dysfunction is related to the onset and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a precursor to nonalcoholic steatohepatosis, or NASH.

JBC: Copper transport puzzle

Mitochondria need copper to produce energy. Researchers in the U.S. and Canada report in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that they have identified the protein that performs the tricky task of carrying copper on the correct pathway.

JBC: Combating atrazine contamination

Researchers in Australia write in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that newly discovered proteins involved in the degradation of a controversial pesticide may provide insights into how bacteria respond to chemicals synthesized by humans.

JBC: Award winners pen essays

To celebrate the many dimensions of scientific achievement honored by the 2018 ASBMB awards, the editors of the Journal of Biological Chemistry invited the winders to submit articles on subjects of their choosing. Here are excerpts.

From the journals

A gene that can both increase and decrease diabetes risk. A protein that makes tumor cells more aggressive. Citrus compounds that reverse obesity. Read about these topics and more in our roundup of recent papers from the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Lipid Research and Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

Books by ASBMB members

Jianghui Hou, an associate professor of medicine at Washington University, has written “The Paracellular Channel: Biology, Physiology and Disease.”