Ando's pioneering journey: From physics to structural enzymology

Nozomi Ando’s academic voyage was not a straight path, but rather a winding exploration driven by curiosity.

The winner of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s 2023 Mildred Cohn Young Investigator Award, Ando is an associate professor at Cornell University’s chemistry and chemical biology department. But she started as a physics major.

Nozomi Ando

An undergraduate classroom exposure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to polymer hydrogels used to study protein folding nudged Ando into the world of biophysics and biochemistry. “Proteins are really quite elegant, and biology is interesting,” she said, recalling her initial intrigue. The transition wasn’t merely a switch, she said. It was an “expansion — a broader lens to view the molecular dance” by which she was captivated.

Ando earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell. There she studied protein behavior under hydrostatic pressure, becoming an expert user of the synchrotron for X-ray scattering. Barbara Baird at Cornell nominated Ando for the award and cited that work. “This technology inspired the construction of new (National Science Foundation)-funded beamlines dedicated to the biology of the deep sea and early life at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source — the first of its kind anywhere and in continuous use,” Baird wrote.

During postdoctoral training in Catherine Drennan’s lab at MIT, Ando delved further into biochemistry to grasp the mysteries of proteins, especially exotic metalloenzymes. Teaming up with JoAnne Stubbe’s lab at MIT, she set out to “nail down the relationship between allosteric activity effectors … and (ribonucleotide reductase) activity” and proved herself a leader, Drennan wrote.

Ando said the award resonates with her, as Cohn also started out with an interest in physics. “I am truly inspired by Dr. Cohn as she was a trailblazer in many aspects — as a woman in science, as a physical chemist who made an impact in biochemistry,” she told the Cornell Chronicle.

Ando said her transition from a “straight physicist” to making waves in chemistry has been thrilling and that the recognition by a biochemistry audience is an “amazing feeling.”

Her lab, which began initially at Princeton University and moved to Cornell in 2018, seeks to answer outstanding questions about biochemistry through method development and physical techniques. Its melding disciplines not only satisfy Ando’s intellectual curiosity but also contribute to the broader understanding of life’s molecular basis.