Member update: April 2019

Weiss named Indiana U distinguished professor

Michael A. Weiss

Indiana University has appointed Michael A. Weiss, the Robert A. Harris professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, as a distinguished professor.

Weiss is one of 10 IU faculty members who in December received distinguished professorships, the university’s highest academic rank for educators or researchers. Distinguished professors are chosen for their outstanding achievement in teaching, scholarship, innovation and leadership.

Weiss’ research focuses on two areas: insulin signaling with application to diabetes mellitus and sex determination with application to genetic infertility syndromes.

In 2009, he founded Thermalin Inc., a biotechnology company that designs and develops novel insulin analogs.

Weiss and the other distinguished professors were honored in March at the university’s distinguished professor symposia.

Glycobiology society honors Taniguchi

Naoyuki Taniguchi

The Society for Glycobiology has given the 2018 Karl Meyer Award to Osaka University professor emeritus Naoyuki Taniguchi.

Established in 1990 in honor of German biochemist Karl Meyer, this award recognizes a scientist with an active research program who has made significant contributions to the field of glycobiology.

Taniguchi began his career on the faculty at Hokkaido University, where he first focused his research in glycobiology. In 1986, he was appointed professor and chair in the department of biochemistry at Osaka University School of Medicine, where his research group studied the structure and function of N-linked glycans.

After he retired from the university in 2006, Taniguchi continued his research as an endowed chair and professor emeritus. He also served as director of the systems glycobiology research group at the RIKEN research institute from 2007 to 2018.

He is now the director of the research center at the Osaka International Cancer Institute and head of the department of glyco-oncology and medical biochemistry at the same institute.

Schulman wins Leibniz Prize

Brenda Schulman

Brenda Schulman, director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, is among the 10 recipients of the 2019 Leibniz Prize.

Established in 1985 by the German Research Foundation, the Leibniz Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of research.

Germany’s most prestigious research award, the prize comes with $2.85 million (2.5 million euros) to support future research endeavors.

The foundation is honoring Schulman for her work in the fields of biochemistry and structural biology on the molecular mechanisms of the ubiquitin system.

Before joining the Max Planck Institute, Schulman served on the faculty at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and as an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In 2018, she was appointed an honorary professor with the Technical University of Munich.

In memoriam: Laszlo Lorand

Laszlo Lorand

Laszlo Lorand, professor emeritus at Northwestern University, died Dec. 6. He was 95 years old.

Born in Győr, Hungary, in 1923, Lorand attended the University of Budapest, where he studied medicine. He earned a Ph.D. in biomolecular structure at the University of Leeds in 1951.

Lorand taught physiology and pharmacology at Wayne State University School of Medicine before joining the Northwestern University faculty in 1955.

At Northwestern, he was a founding member of the department of cell and molecular biology as well as the first director of an National Institutes of Health-funded biochemistry training program.

An author on more than 200 scientific publications, Lorand focused his research on thrombosis, protein associations and calcium ions.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Joyce Bruner–Lorand, and is survived by his daughter, Michele Lorand.

In memoriam: Subir Bose

Subir Kumar Bose

Subir Kumar Bose, professor emeritus of microbiology and internal medicine at St. Louis University, died July 25. He was 86 years old.

Born in Gaya, India, Bose earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Lucknow. After moving to the United States in 1958, he completed a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Washington University in 1963.

Bose joined the St. Louis University School of Medicine’s department of microbiology in 1965. He was appointed associate professor in 1968 and became a full professor in 1976. He served as interim chair of the department of microbiology from 1989 to 1991 and was appointed professor of internal medicine in 1991.

Bose’s research focused on understanding cell-to-cell interactions in intracellular infections, for which he received the United States Public Health Service research career development award.

Highly regarded as an educator, Bose hosted many Indian students and postdoctoral fellows at his lab.

After retiring in 1993, he moved to Athens, Greece, to live with his wife and collaborator, Evangelia Vretou, research director at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute.