From the Department Head

The last time I recall the department putting out a newsletter was about fifteen years ago. And even then, it was from just a part of the current department. Microbiology was still a separate department, and its head, Len Zimmerman, sent out a letter to all Microbiology graduates at Christmas.

The last time I recall the department putting out a newsletter was about fifteen years ago. And even then, it was from just a part of the current department. Microbiology was still a separate department, and its head, Len Zimmerman, sent out a letter to all Microbiology graduates at Christmas.

Ever since I became head nearly four years ago, I've wanted to produce a newsletter to keep alumni and friends informed of happenings in the department. But there were so many other things that needed to be done, that only now have I found the time. I hope that this inaugural newsletter will be followed by many more. If I can find a volunteer in the department to serve as editor, which is the case in other departments in the college, we might even be able to produce a newsletter more than once per year.

This first newsletter will be devoted to bringing you up to date on what has happened in the department over the last few years. I won't relate anything that has occurred more than eighteen years ago, the point at which I joined the department as an assistant professor; on some topics, I'll only relate what has happened since I became head. I realize that at least some of the information you will already know from the newsletter Dean Geoffroy puts out. But since that newsletter is college-wide, it cannot cover all that is happening in each department.

Departmental Name

Those of you who graduated some time ago may have received your degree from the Department of Microbiology, the Department of Biochemistry, or the Department of Biophysics. These three separate departments were merged about fifteen years ago to form the current department.

After the merger, we tried various names for the department, finally settling on the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics. No one outside the department could remember this mouthful (sometimes we couldn't either), which led to us being known by the acro-nym MC3B.

The name was finally shortened in 1985 to Molecular and Cell Biology. However, our faculty recently voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the department to Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and that is now our official name, having been approved by the Board of Trustees last fall.

Department Heads

The first head of the combined department was Bob Bernlohr, who served from 1975 until 1985. When he stepped down, Jean Brenchley became our new head. Some of you may remember Jean as an assistant or associate professor of microbiology in the mid-1970s. She left Penn State about 1976 to accept a faculty position at Purdue University. From there, she became an executive in industry. But she was lured back to academia in 1985, when she became head of our department, as well as director of the new Biotechnology Institute.

Since the institute did not yet exist, Jean spent her first two years back at Penn State planning and overseeing the construction of the building to house the institute (named Wartik Laboratory after our dean of many years), running the department, and also serving as president of the American Society of Microbiology! With more duties than one person could possibly handle, she relinquished being head in 1988, but continued her other duties until recently, when she returned to being a full-time faculty member.

Reg Deering served as acting head for about two years while two external searches for a new head were conducted, and Bob Bernlohr served as interim acting head until January 1991, when I became head.

Undergraduate Programs

Until recently, we maintained three undergraduate majors in the department, which corresponded to the three departments that merged: Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular and Cell Biology. Historically, Microbiology graduated the most students by far-about 150 per year. However, about ten years ago, that number took a nosedive to its current level of about fifty graduates per year. Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology each graduate thirty to thirty-five students per year. The total number of students graduating from our department each year is second only to Biology in the college.

But recent changes have occurred in our undergraduate majors as well. We have just completed a merger of the Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology majors (see below) to create a new major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Students entering this fall can choose that major for the first time. The Microbiology major has been retained, and we are exploring the possibility of creating a new Biotechnology major to better equip students for the growing number of opportunities in the biotechnology industry.

Our undergraduate majors are overseen by our director of undergraduate studies, Phil Mohr, and by the Undergraduate Affairs Committee. Over the last two years, they have systematically evaluated every undergraduate course offered in the department by ten criteria, such as content, relevancy for our majors, etc. As a result of this painstaking process, we have just discontinued a number of obsolete courses, added some new ones, reorganized some, and modified others. Based on these courses, the committee formulated revised curricula for each of the majors, which the faculty as a whole adopted.

Upon comparison of the Biochemistry curriculum and the Molecular and Cell Biology curriculum, only small differences remained. We surveyed current students in these two majors to determine their opinion on whether the majors should be combined into a new major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The response was unanimously yes, with several students asking why we hadn't done it sooner.

Graduate Programs

We had also maintained three separate graduate programs representing the three departments which merged: Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular and Cell Biology. However, the faculty recently voted to combine these three programs into a new one, called Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, which will have a new common curriculum with a required core course in each of the three disciplines, and other common requirements. We have just recently received approval from the Graduate School for the change, so that this fall's incoming graduate students enrolled in the new major. Ron Porter, our director of graduate studies, oversees all aspects of the graduate program.

The number of graduate students in the department has also diminished to a certain extent. The peak number a few years ago was about ninety students, with a normal steady state level of about seventy-five. However, this last summer we were down to only forty-five students.

There are many reasons for this decline. First, we have fewer teaching assistantships to offer. We have normally had about forty-five teaching assistantships, thirty from the college and fifteen from Hatch funds from the College of Agricultural Sciences. However, due to budgetary pressures, the Hatch funds have been eliminated, so that we have only thirty assistantships available.

Just as important, we experienced a period where fewer and fewer students in all disciplines were choosing to go to graduate school. As a result, only twenty students enrolled over the last two years. However, Reg Deering, director of graduate recruiting, and graduate program secretary Lorene Stitzer did a bang-up job last year, and twenty-three new students have enrolled this fall.

In the future, we would like to enroll about fifteen new students each year, for a steady state level of about seventy-five students total. As part of our increased recruiting effort, Reg Deering put together a one-page mailer describing the focus areas of research in our department. We sent this to those of you whom we knew to be at undergraduate institutions and asked that you make students aware of our programs. If we have missed you in the mailing, or if you'd simply like to receive a copy of the flier, let us know.

Names, Names, and Names

If you're now sitting there thinking that we have three different sets of names in the department, you're right. A bit confusing, yes; but each name serves its purpose in projecting the information we wish to convey in the name. As a recap:

  • Department:
  • Undergraduate Majors:
  • Graduate Program:

    • Facilities

    The department is now housed in three buildings: North Frear (built in 1938 and most recently renovated in 1985), South Frear (built in 1968), and Althouse (built in 1970). Biochemistry and Molecular Biology occupies only the second and fourth floor and part of the first floor of North Frear. The Department of Biology occupies the third floor and most of the first floor of North Frear, and all of Mueller (formerly called the Life Sciences Building). Althouse, North Frear, and Mueller are all interconnected by tunnels, and North and South Frear are connected by corridors at all levels.

    Our departmental and clerical offices have been consolidated in Althouse, and our business office is in South Frear, though we'd dearly love to have it located on the first floor of North Frear next to our stockroom. Microbiology teaching labs are located on the first floor of South Frear, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology teaching labs are located on the second floor of North Frear.

    Faculty

    Over the last decade we have maintained a steady state of thirty to thirty-two faculty, with a high of thirty-five. However, two years ago Dean Geoffroy fixed the number of faculty in the department at twenty-seven, the number we had slipped to due to a freeze on faculty hiring imposed by the University in response to budgetary shortfalls.

    Due to the loss of four additional faculty members since then, we had dropped to an all-time low of just twenty-three faculty. However, the hiring freeze was lifted last fall and, after a successful search, three new faculty have just arrived. In addition, reallocation of funds within the University has provided several additional faculty positions in the department. So after some very bleak times, things are looking up.

    Here, from memory, is what has happened to some of our faculty since I've been at Penn State, presented in no particular order. Frank Mallette, Jim Shigley, Bill Ginoza, Chris Pootjes, Dick Morgan, John Pazur, and Earl Casida have retired, though John and Earl remain active in research and Jim in undergraduate advising. Len Zimmerman went from head of Microbiology to associate dean in the college to dean of the college, and has now also retired. Gene Lindstrom left Microbiology to serve as head of Biology for quite a number of years, and has now retired. Rosemary Schraer became provost at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and recently passed away just before her retirement. Harold Schraer has returned to the State College area. Although he left Penn State prior to my arrival, I see Ernie Pollard, former head of Biophysics, on occasion, since he divides his time between State College and the Isle of Wight off the coast of England.

    Dick McCarl became director of Intercollege Research Programs in the Graduate School, and retired from the University a couple of years ago. Bill Taylor became associate dean in the college, then assumed the position of IRP director vacated by Dick, which he still holds. Wally Snipes and Alec Keith patented and developed the transdermal nitroglycerine patch Nitroder, then founded a company called Zetachron, located here in State College. Wally remains at Zetachron, whereas Alex divides his time between Zetachron and Watson Pharmaceuticals on the West Coast, which merged with Zetachron.

    John Docherty became head of microbiology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Two years ago Nick Aronson became head of biochemistry at the University of South Alabama's College of Medicine in Mobile, Alabama. Ron Yasbin is now head of biology at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. David Shalloway accepted an endowed faculty position at Cornell University, and Ed Stevens one at Memphis State University. Ed Gaffney is now at Baptist Medical Centers in Birmingham, Alabama. Stan Person continues to work in the lab, only at the University of Pittsburgh rather than Penn State. Paul Todd has relocated to a federal laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

    Two years ago Dan Tershak underwent a liver transplant. Although it appeared to be successful and Dan had returned to work, the liver failed and Dan passed away. In his memory, a faculty teaching award, an undergraduate scholarship, and a graduate scholarship have been established through donations from his many friends and students. Last year, Sylvia Stein, director of the Penn State National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program housed in our department, very active at 70, succumbed to cancer. And soon after classes ended for the spring semester 1993, Walter Karakawa died very unexpectedly of heart failure at the age of 62.

    Just prior to the hiring freeze, we were able to hire three new assistant professors. They are Susan Abmayr, Ph.D. at Rockefeller with Bob Roeder and postdoc at Harvard with Tom Maniatis, who studies the molecular genetic mechanisms of muscle cell development in the fruit fly, Drosophila; Frank Pugh, Ph.D. at Wisconsin with Michael Cox and postdoc at Berkeley with Bob Tjian, who studies eurkaryotic transcriptional regulation; and Jerry Workman, Ph.D. at the University of Michigan with John Langmore, postdocs at Rockefeller with Bob Roeder and at Massachusetts General Hospital with Bob Kingston, who studies chromatin/transcription factor interactions in transcriptional regulation.

    Even in these times of extreme difficulty in obtaining federal funding, all three were successful on their first try. Even more impressive, Susan is the recipient of an American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Award; Frank is the recipient of a Searle Scholar Award, one of only seventeen awarded nationwide; and Jerry is the recipient of a Leukemia Society of America Scholar Award.

    Through generous contributions of alumni and friends, our department has four endowed faculty positions. Ken Johnson is Paul Berg (Nobel laureate and Penn State graduate in biochemistry) Professor of Biochemistry, and Don Bryant is Ernest Pollard (see above) Professor of Biotechnology. Currently unfilled is the Eberly Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

    We are very fortunate to have just recruited Bob Simpson as the Verne Willaman (graduate of our department and former president of Ortho Pharmaceuticals, and a Johnson & Johnson board member) Chair in Molecular Biology. Bob received his M.D. and Ph.D. at Harvard University Medical School and has been at the National Institutes of Health for the last twenty-five years, rising to his current position of chief of the developmental biochemistry section, Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology. Bob's area of research is quite similar to that of Jerry Workman's (see above), and they will occupy adjoining laboratories in Althouse.

    Also joining us this fall are two new assistant professors. Paul Babitzke received his Ph.D. with Sidney Kushner at The University of Georgia and just completed his postdoctoral training with Charles Yanofsky at Stanford University. His research centers on the mechanisms of transcriptional attenuation in prokaryotes.

    Ola Sodeinde, originally from Nigeria, received his Ph.D. with Jon Goguen at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and just completed his postdoctoral studies with Karen Kindle and David Stern at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University. His research concerns nuclear/plastid gene interactions in Chlamydomonas.

    One area of significant overlap between our department and the Department of Biology is developmental biology. Last year, Biology hired three new assistant professors, each of whom studies a different aspect of development in the fruit fly. They are Esther Siegfried and Graham Thomas, who arrived from postdocs at Harvard University, and Zhi-Chun Lai, who arrived from a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley. To formalize this shared interest of our departments, each of these three has a quarter-time joint appointment in our department. These new additions bring to nearly ten the total number of faculty in our department and in Biology who are using the fruit fly as a model organism.

    Last, but not least, Greg Farber, who joined the Chemistry Department in 1990, with a quarter-time joint appointment in our department, has changed his appointment to 100% in our department. Greg received his undergraduate degree at Penn State in Chemistry,his Ph.D. at M.I.T. working with Gregory Petsko, and did postdoctoral studies at Wisconsin with William Cleland. Greg, whose main research tool is x-ray crystallography, is also the recipient of a Searle Scholar Award, as mentioned above for Frank Pugh.

    Focus Areas

    In the past, we have thrown out a wide net when searching for new faculty and have hired the most outstanding candidates we could attract, regardless of their specific field of interest. The advantage is that our department has contained a rich diversity of research interests. The disadvantage is that no one area contained enough faculty to have a significant national reputation for excellence. To counteract this problem, the department has identified two primary research areas, already strongly represented, on which to focus our efforts.

    Several years ago, a Center for Biomolecular Structure and Function was established in the college, with faculty representation from Chemistry and our department. This area is one chosen for enhancement in our department. Last year a Center for Gene Regulation was established in the college, represented primarily by faculty in our department, with Ross Hardison as director. This is the department's second focus area.

    This year's hiring will be in these two areas; however, if you receive our departmental flier, you will see that the department also recognizes two other areas of research emphasis: Molecular and Applied Microbiology, and Cellular Physiology.

    Instructors

    I cannot close without acknowledging a group of individuals whose loyal service, dedication and hard work have helped our department become recognized for its excellence in teaching: our outstanding full-time instructors. They are, with years of service in parentheses, Dr. Greg Grove (11), Dr. Anne Grippo (3), Peggy Schlegel (4), Dr. Carl Sillman (19), Dr. Chris Tachibana (2) and Mary Jane (Tershak) Wronski (15).

    We Appreciate Your Support

    In this time of decreased support from the state of Pennsylvania and extreme difficulty in obtaining federal funds, contributions to the department become increasingly more important in permitting us to pursue our goals. I'm sure you are aware that if you make donations to the University, you can direct them to wherever you wish. If you would like to direct your donations to our department, there are several funds to which you may contribute.

    Endowed funds are those which require a certain amount to establish them, are invested, and from which the interest each year is available for awards. These can take the form of an endowed faculty position, a scholarship, a lectureship, or an award; additional funds can be added to the principal of these endowments at any time. Other funds are not endowed. They may accrue interest, but generally amounts are withdrawn from them as necessary to fill the needs of the program to which they have been designated.

    Below is a listing of funds within our department. We would, of course, be very pleased to receive donations toward any of them you may choose to support. Following the list of funds is the list of those of you who have contributed to any of them in the last ten years.

    We greatly appreciate your generous support. In each newsletter, we will publish the names of those of you who have contributed since the previous newsletter.

    Endowed Funds:

    ARTHUR H. ANDERSON MEMORIAL FUND
    Given to a full-time Biochemistry senior who exhibits outstanding traits of character, academic achievement, and demonstrates leadership ability.

    IRVING AND JEANNE ATLAS SCHOLARSHIP IN BIOCHEMISTRY
    Consideration given to all full-time undergraduate students enrolled or planning to enroll in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology who have achieved outstanding academic records or who manifest promise of academic success.

    PAUL AND MILDRED BERG ENDOWMENT
    Support for travel of graduate students in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to scientific conferences and meetings.

    R. ADAMS DUTCHER MEMORIAL FUND
    Support for travel of graduate students in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to scientific conferences and meetings.

    CHARLES R. GERTH SCHOLARSHIP
    Established for juniors and seniors enrolled in Agricultural or Biological Chemistry. Criteria for this award include scholarship, character and leadership.

    KEVIN DANIEL GILMORE MEMORIAL AWARD
    Given to undergrads enrolled in the Biochemistry major who have or manifest promise of academic success, have demonstrated good personal qualities and traits, and who will be a credit to the university.

    RICHARD L. MAGINNIS MEMORIAL AWARD
    Given to full-time undergraduate students in the option of Medical Technology with at least a junior standing, who manifest a genuine interest in Medical Technology as a career, who have maintained a superior grade record, and show evidence of professional promise in the field of Medical Technology.

    POLLARD LECTURE IN BIOPHYSICS OR MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
    To stimulate research in biophysics or molecular biology via a lecture which brings to The Pennsylvania State University an outstanding young biophysicist or molecular biologist.

    STONE LECTURE IN MICROBIOLOGY
    To stimulate research in microbiology by providing an honorarium for an annual lecture by an outstanding microbiologist.

    DANIEL R. TERSHAK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
    Given to a full-time undergraduate student who has completed his/her sophomore year in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, with a preference to those studying microbiology and who manifest promise of outstanding academic success.

    DANIEL R. TERSHAK MEMORIAL GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP
    To recognize and support outstanding graduate students enrolled or planning to enroll in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, with preference given to those with an interest in virology.

    DANIEL R. TERSHAK MEMORIAL TEACHING AWARD
    To recognize tenure-track faculty in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for excellence in teaching.

    Other Funds:

    Frisque and Deering Honored

    Three years ago, the Graduate School established a Graduate Faculty Teaching Award to be presented each year to one outstanding graduate faculty member selected University-wide. It speaks volumes for the quality of our faculty that, for two of the three years the award has been in existence, faculty from our department have been the recipients: Dick Frisque in 1992 and Reg Deering in 1994. We thank again Dick's and Reg's former students and colleagues for their letters of support submitted with the dossiers. Without your help, this happy result would not have been possible.

    Distinguished Lecture Series

    The Eberly College of Science sponsors annual Marker Lectures in astronomy and astrophysics, the chemical sciences, evolutionary biology, genetic engineering, the mathematical sciences, and the physical sciences. These lectures are named in honor of Russell Marker, professor emeritus of organic chemistry at Penn State, whose pioneering synthetic methods revolutioned the steroid hormone industry.

    The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is pleased to host the Marker Lectures in Genetic Engineering each spring. Past lecturers include:

    1985/86 Ron Davis, Stanford University
    "Applications of Genetic Engineering"

    1986/87 Stanley Cohen, Stanford University
    "The New Genetics: An Extraordinary Time in the Biological Sciences"

    1989/90 Hugh McDevitt, Stanford University
    "The Role of the Major Histocompatibility Antigens in Health and Disease"

    1990/91 Paul Berg, Stanford University
    "Reverse Genetics: Molecular Studies of Gene Function"

    1991/92 Robert Weinberg, Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    "Molecular Origins of Cancer"

    1992/93 Mario Capecchi, University of Utah
    "Gene Targeting & Mouse Development"

    1993/94 Leroy Hood, University of Washington School of Medicine
    "Genes, Molecules and Medicine"

    1994/95 Robert Tjian, University of California-Berkeley
    (lectures to be presented in April 1995)

    In addition to the Marker Lectures, the department also presents two additional distinguished lectures: the Stone Lecture and the Pollard Lecture (both described on previous page).

    Recent Stone Lecturers:

    Richard Losick, Harvard University
    "Establishment of Cell Type in a Simple Differentiating Organism"

    Norm Pace, University of Indiana
    "Of Ribosomes and Volcanoes: Molecular Microbial Ecology and Submarine Hydrothermal Vents"

    Charles Yanofsky, Stanford University
    "Regulatory Diversity in the Control of Tryptophan Metabolism in E. coli and B. subtilis"

    Recent Pollard Lecturers:

    Gary Felsenfeld, National Institutes of Health
    "Developmental Regulation of Globin Gene Expression"

    Eugene Nester, University of Washington
    "Crown Gall: DNA Transfer from Bacteria to Plants"

    Tom Maniatis, Harvard University
    "Assembly of a Stereospecific Transcription Enhancer Complex Requires the High Mobility Group Protein HMG I(Y)"