Contributors
Comfort Dorn
Articles by Comfort Dorn
Editor's Note
Our top 10 articles of 2024
Dec. 25, 2024
ASBMB Today posted more than 400 original articles this year. The ones that were most read covered research, society news, policy, mental health, careers and more.
In Memoriam
In memoriam: Bruce Ames
Oct. 28, 2024
He invented a cheap and easy way to assess mutagenicity that helped identify many environmental and industrial carcinogens; it became known as the Ames test.
Society News
We're saving some trees
Feb. 5, 2024
ASBMB Today will now be printed four times a year.
Editor's Note
Thank you for surprising me
Jan. 24, 2024
“I’ve learned that there’s healing power in sharing stories of pain and loss … So, I asked for stories. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect.”
Editor's Note
Season’s greetings
Dec. 21, 2023
“I always think of the December issue of ASBMB Today as our holiday gift to you, our wonderful members. And I want to give you something you’ll like — and maybe even a little surprise.”
Annual Meeting
Greetings from San Antonio
Nov. 2, 2023
Meet some of the ASBMB members who live and work in the city where we’ll meet for Discover BMB 2024.
Editor's Note
Wellness and trauma
Aug. 31, 2023
Telling stories helps us heal. Here’s my trauma story. Now I want to read yours.
Editor's Note
Science will suffer
June 1, 2023
We wondered if laws targeting LGBTQIA+ rights were affecting the career decisions of our members. It wasn’t easy to get answers.
Editor's Note
Those who care and engage
May 18, 2023
Being an ASBMB fellow isn’t just about hanging around together; it’s about engaging with others and moving together into the unknown.
Wellness
Take a breath
Jan. 12, 2023
“At the heart of it, I think we all take care of ourselves as a gift to those around us as much as to ourselves.”
Annual Meeting
It’s all about making connections
Oct. 11, 2022
Five grad students who received ASBMB travel awards talk about their experiences at the 2022 annual meeting.
BMB in Africa
BMB stories from Africa
July 28, 2022
How the June/July issue of ASBMB Today came to be.
Editor's Note
Good fellows
May 18, 2022
“To be a fellow, a member must be generous with time and talent — not just someone whose CV includes pages of individual BMB achievements.”
Editor's Note
Building community
March 29, 2022
“One of my most important jobs is helping people feel like they know what’s going on with the members of their community.”
Editor's Note
Diversity matters
Feb. 23, 2022
As we move through life, all of us need to see people who look like us doing work that we and our society value.
Editor's Note
Our gift to you
Dec. 23, 2021
“This month’s issue is the ASBMB Today team’s gift to you, our members and readers. We are so grateful for your unflagging interest and enthusiasm, especially over the past two years.”
Editor's Note
Six months from now
Oct. 6, 2021
The 2022 annual meeting finds us at a hello–goodbye moment. It will be a one-of-a-kind event — and here at ASBMB central, we’re getting excited.
Editor's Note
Be special with us
Aug. 5, 2021
As we were mailing our special Careers Issue this month, we were already thinking about the next one: our Wellness Issue in January 2022.
Editor's Note
Reimagining a best-case scenario
June 23, 2021
As the pandemic turned our lives upside down, we suddenly could see all the cobwebs under the furniture, not to mention cracks in the floor.
Editor's Note
Hidden talents
April 16, 2021
Witty drawings by ASBMB staff member Vic De Luz are a bonus feature of our April focus on science and art.
Editor's Note
One year later
March 19, 2021
Since mid-March 2020, the way we do everything has been shifted by the COVID-19 pandemic, layered with all the ordinary changes of work and life and coping.
Editor's Note
It’s the little things
Jan. 15, 2021
The essays in January wellness issue emphasize small actions to ease pandemic stress.
Editor's Note
We’ve got a new way of meeting
Nov. 11, 2020
The logistics of the ASBMB’s annual meeting have always been impressive. With the move to an all online meeting in 2021, it’s a whole new ballgame.
Interview
What is success for women in STEM?
Oct. 22, 2020
A conversation with Marilee Benore and Rana Dajani about their lives as women in science and their recent research projects.
Editor's Note
Wellness — we need it now more than ever
Sept. 30, 2020
ASBMB Today will publish its third wellness issue in January. The editors want to know how you are keeping mentally and physically well in a pandemic.
Editor's Note
A time for reimagining
Sept. 10, 2020
The world will be a different place next spring — a year after COVID-19 began to shutter much of the planet. Why not make this a time for rethinking structures in ways that are more sensible and just? We want your ideas for how to do that.
Editor's Note
Breaking the news
May 15, 2020
On her third anniversary as our managing editor, Comfort Dorn reflects on how the pace of ASBMB Today has changed, thanks in part to COVID-19.
Editor's Note
Caution: Tchotchkes at work
March 13, 2020
For our 2020 careers issue, we want to see — and share — the accumulated objects you have in your workspace.
Editor's Note
Picking up the slack
Feb. 10, 2020
Like many black scientists, Marion Sewer overcome negativity through hard work, then took on the job of supporting underrepresented minorities.
Editor's Note
Well, to be honest
Jan. 4, 2020
In January, we focus on wellness — and we roll out a dynamic new website.
Editor's Note
Ending an elemental year
Dec. 1, 2019
Throughout 2019, Quira Zeidan has educated readers about important biochemical elements from the periodic table. It’s not too late to catch up!
Editor's Note
It's about time
Nov. 1, 2019
Here at ASBMB central, we constantly think and talk about the society’s biggest event; the next annual meeting is forever looming, even the day after the last one ends.
Editor's Note
Wellness, again
Sept. 1, 2019
Wellness is such a big topic in the scientific community that ASBMB Today plans to devote another special issue to how you care for your mind, body and spirit. Managing Editor Comfort Dorn invites you to contribute.
Annual Meeting
2020 annual meeting thematic sessions
Sept. 1, 2019
The 2020 ASBMB annual meeting will include eight thematic tracks largely highlighting foundational areas of chemistry and molecular biology. Read on for details of these tracks — including scheduled speakers, key words and theme songs.
Retrospective
J. Thomas August (1927 — 2019)
Sept. 1, 2019
Colleagues and family remember a Johns Hopkins researcher and pioneer in immunology.
Annual Meeting
2020 annual meeting tracks
Aug. 1, 2019
The ASBMB annual meeting will include tracks on eight themes.
Education
Ph.D. outcomes — one university at a time
Aug. 1, 2019
Six university graduate schools across the U.S. share information on where their student head after earning a doctorate in the biosciences.
Editor's Note
Magazine life
June 1, 2019
"As much as I love running stories about amazing science, I have a special fondness for stories about issues," writes ASBMB Today Managing Editor Comfort Dorn.
Editor's Note
Working knowledge
May 1, 2019
As an undergrad, grad student and (maybe) postdoc, you’ve learned a whole lot about science. But how much were you taught about having a career as a scientist? More to the point, how much were you not taught?
Editor's Note
Be a writer
March 1, 2019
ASBMB Today Managing Editor Comfort Dorn invites submissions for two essay series: “Night shift” and “What I wish people understood about ___.”
What I Wish People Understood
What I wish people understood about writing and editing
March 1, 2019
ASBMB Today managing editor Comfort Dorn takes on one of the magazine’s 2019 essay topics in a bid to encourage readers to become writers.
Editor's Note
Vital fluids
Feb. 1, 2019
Plasma, the yellowish fluid in which blood cells and platelets are suspended, is essential for treating trauma patients and those with a number of other medical conditions.
Society News
ASBMB members elect six to council and other offices
Jan. 1, 2019
Members of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have elected some new and some familiar faces to leadership positions in the society.
Annual Meeting
How mentoring moments are made
Nov. 1, 2017
The ASBMB annual meeting offers opportunities for students and early-career scientists to connect with professionals who can help them develop their interests and chart a career path.
Annual Meeting
Behind the scenes of the annual meeting
Oct. 1, 2017
1,001 tasks precede the ASBMB annual meeting, and there's always at least one surprise.
Annual Meeting
15 minutes of fame
Sept. 1, 2017
Presenters from the 2017 Spotlight Sessions at the ASBMB annual meeting describe the many benefits of telling a crowd about your science.