JBC names 2021 Tabor young investigators

The Journal of Biological Chemistry has named the winners of the 2021 JBC Herbert Tabor Early Career Investigator Awards. The awards, named after the late editor-in-chief of the journal, recognize early-career scientists with standout first-author papers published in the past year.

Adrian Arrieta

James M. Burke

Alejandro Castillo–Kauil

Anne Harbig

Duncan J. Kountz

A committee of JBC associate editors, headed up by George DeMartino of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, selected the five winners after reviewing nominations from JBC readers, consulting experts in the field and evaluating the quantitative impact of the papers.

The winners will give talks at the 2021 ASBMB Annual Meeting, which will take place virtually April 27–30.

Tabor award winners from 2020, whose talks were postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, also will present their work at the 2021 meeting.

The winners and their papers are below.

2021 winners

Adrian Arrieta, graduate student at San Diego State University

• Paper: Mesencephalic astrocyte–derived neurotrophic factor is an ER-resident chaperone that protects against reductive stress in the heart

James M. Burke, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder

• Paper: RNase L promotes the formation of unique ribonucleoprotein granules distinct from stress granules 

Alejandro Castillo–Kauil, graduate student at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute.  

• Paper: Gαs directly drives PDZ-RhoGEF signaling to Cdc42  

Anne Harbig, graduate student at Philipps–University Marburg

• Paper: Transcriptome profiling and protease inhibition experiments identify proteases that activate H3N2 influenza A and influenza B viruses in murine airways
• Editors’ Pick Highlight: Finding proteases that make cells go viral 

Duncan J. Kountz, graduate student at Harvard University

• Paper:MtcB, a member of the MttB superfamily from the human gut acetogen Eubacterium limosum, is a cobalamin-dependent carnitine demethylase
• Editors’ Pick Highlight: Taking the “Me” out of meat: A new demethylation pathway dismantles a toxin’s precursor

2020 winners

Manisha Dagar, graduate student at Amity Institute of Biotechnology

• Paper: Phosphorylation of HSP90 by protein kinase A is essential for the nuclear translocation of androgen receptor
• Editors’ Pick Highlight: Keys to unlock androgen receptor translocation
• ASBMB Today profile: Dagar dissects a prostate cancer driver

Ayumi Nagashima–Kasahara, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tokyo

• Paper: Transcriptional regulators involved in responses to volatile organic compounds in plants

Febin Varghese, research associate at Washington State University

• Paper: A low-potential terminal oxidase associated with the iron-only nitrogenase from the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii
• ASBMB Today profile: Varghese roams from forests to enzymes

Yue Yang, instructor at Weill Cornell Medicine

• Paper: Dihydronicotinamide riboside is a potent NAD+ concentration enhancer in vitro and in vivo
• ASBMB Today profile: Yang follows the science where it takes her

Wehchano Zhao, graduate student at the University of Bonn

• Ribosome profiling of selenoproteins in vivo reveals consequences of pathogenic Secisbp2 missense mutations
• Editor’s Pick Highlight: Gained in translation: The power of digging deep into disease models
• ASBMB Today profile: Selenium led Zhao from icy hometown to German hospitality