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In Brief
Eschenmoser directs, together with Assistant Professor Ram Krishnamurthy, a research group at the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology that has contributed to the field through investigations into the chemical origins of nucleic acid structure, particularly through work on the threofuranosyl oligonucleotides (TNAs). TNA nucleotides are structurally similar to DNA and RNA nucleotides except that they contain structurally simpler 4-carbon based sugars, rather than the 5-carbon sugars ribose or deoxyribose. The important property of TNA is that it has the capability of Watson-Crick base pairing comparable in strength to DNA and RNA. Furthermore, TNA is able to communicate by such base pairing with the natural nucleic acids and, therefore, may be a possible intermediary between RNA and earlier, simpler forms of informational molecules. Finding the simplest possible informational oligomer systems that could have formed under natural conditions is one of the goals of Eschenmoser's research group. At the conference, Eschenmoser delivered a plenary lecture, entitled "The TNA-Family of Nucleic Acid Systems: Properties and Prospects."
Rebek (B.S., University of Kansas; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)) has been at TSRI since 1996. As an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1970 to 1976, he developed the "three-phase test" for reactive intermediates. At the University of Pittsburgh, where he rose to the rank of professor, he developed cleft-like structures for studies in molecular recognition. In 1989, he returned to MIT as Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry and devised synthetic, self-replicating molecules. The recipient of many awards and honors, Rebek continues to work in combinatorial chemistry and self-assembling systems at TSRI.
"The Academy is pleased to welcome these outstanding and influential individuals to the nation's most illustrious learned society," says Academy President Patricia Meyer Spacks of the 2002 inductees. "Election to the American Academy is the result of a highly competitive process that recognizes those who have made preeminent contributions to all scholarly fields and professions." An internationally recognized scientist known principally for his work in the field of x-ray crystallography, Wilson (B.Sc., University of Edinburgh; D.Phil., Oxford University) joined TSRI's faculty in 1982, after completing a postdoctoral fellowship and teaching assignments at Harvard University. Wilson's research has led to significant advances in the scientific understanding of molecular recognition in the immune system and in signal transduction by cytokine hormone receptors. Through his efforts, breakthroughs have been achieved in several areas of structural biology, immunology, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry, particularly in understanding the chemistry of antibody-antigen recognition, the mechanism of catalytic antibodies, cellular-immune recognition by T cell receptor-MHC interaction, the mechanism of growth hormone-cytokine receptor signaling, and the identification and mechanisms of novel small molecule mimetics of natural hormones.
The Gilula Fellowship, which is primarily supported by contributions from TSRI's faculty and administration, goes to: • Nadim Jessani, Macromolecular and Cellular Structure and Chemistry
(MCSC) Program; The Jabinson Fellowship, supported by the Louis R. Jabinson Investigatorship Fund created by trusts left to TSRI upon the death of Marguerite Jabinson, goes to: • Fraser Hof, Chemistry; The Daniel Koshland Fellowship, supported by a gift from Daniel Koshland, goes to: • Scott Harrison, Chemistry The Fletcher Jones Fellowship, supported by a 1993 grant from The Fletcher Jones Foundation to endow a graduate fellowship goes to:
• Diana Franck (MCSC), Stephanie Gupton (MCSC), and Luke Leman (Chemistry) will receive three-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships; • Graduate student Julie Tubbs (MCSC) will receive a NIH/NIGMS fellowship; • Jose Luis Vela (MCSC) will receive a NIH/Minority Predoctoral Fellowship; • John Trzupek (Chemistry) will receive National Defense and Science Engineering Graduate Fellowship.
TB screening requires a 48 to 72 hour follow-up. Individuals receiving the TB screen on Monday will need to return on Wednesday; individuals screened on Wednesday, will need to return on Friday. Initiation of the TB screening process will not be available on Friday, but Hepatitis B immunization and serum draws will be. To learn more about these programs, see the Environmental Health & Safety Occupational Medicine web page which includes a map and patient information sheets.
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