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From the Department Head
Nearly 100 of you responded to the first Newsletter mailed out the Fall of 1994. The information you provided about yourselves forms a substantial portion of this Newsletter. We again include a page at the end of the Newsletter for those of you who wish to tell us where you are, what you're doing, and what has happened recently in your professional or personal life. |
A number of responses were received by e-mail. Carter Schroy suggested that the department create a homepage on the World Wide Web and add the Newsletter to it. By the time I received his suggestion, a homepage created by Tracy Nixon and Nancy Johnson had already been placed on the Web. You can access our homepage at http://www.bmb.psu.edu. This page contains a variety of information: our graduate brochure (outlining faculty research), descriptions of our undergraduate programs, faculty publications, and other departmental activities. This Newsletter and the previous one can also be found there. If there are those of you who are happy with the electronic version of the Newsletter and would like to help us reduce printing and mailing costs, please contact Nancy Johnson (nxj1@oas.psu.edu) and ask her to remove you from our Newsletter mailing list.
The most frequent suggestion from respondents was to provide the names and addresses of alumni of our department. Wow!! What a job that would be! I was a bit shocked to discover that there are now over 4,000 living alumni of our department and its predecessors! Even if we had the resources to provide this listing, we couldn't anyway. You can imagine how valuable a mailing list that would be to vendors. I assume it is for that reason that the University Alumni Office doesn't even provide US with a listing. Rather, we are provided with mailing labels, already addressed, to attach to the Newsletter.
Several suggestions related to more coverage of research. One was to highlight the research of one faculty member in each issue. We begin doing so with this issue. Other suggestions were to list one or two publications of each faculty member from the previous year, or to highlight the research of several faculty. We already have documents to satisfy these requests. Our graduate brochure, updated every two or three years, contains research descriptions and a list of selected publications for each faculty member, and each year we also separately compile a list of all publications from the department. As stated above, this information is on our Web page. If you don't have Internet access, but would like a copy of these reports, let Nancy know by e-mail or hard-copy letter if you would like either of these documents, and we will send them to you.
Undergraduate Programs
The Board of Trustees has approved a new undergraduate major in Biotechnology to be offered by our department. We created the major to better train our students for the job market if they do not wish to go on to graduate or professional school. The new major also becomes the new home of the Medical Laboratory Technology option, formerly called the Medical Technology option. The major will have greater breadth than either the Microbiology major or the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, requiring the introductory and intermediate level courses of both majors.
The hallmark of the major will be increased hands-on laboratory experiences. We have introduced a laboratory course in Mammalian Cell Culture and will soon introduce laboratory courses in Plant Biotechnology and in Fermentation. Funds were provided by the College to renovate several rooms on the second floor of North Frear in which these laboratories will be taught. These courses have been adapted from similar courses offered as Short Courses--one-week intensive sessions for personnel from industry--through Continuing Education. These and two other Short Courses were offered by the Biotechnology Institute. However, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology will now offer these Short Courses, with Dr. Kamal Rashid as Director of both the Short Courses and the derived undergraduate laboratory courses. As a lecturer in one of the Short courses, I noticed that a fair number of the participants were graduates of our department, now in positions in industry. Offering the courses as a regular part of our undergraduate curriculum will allow our majors to receive the training they need before they graduate, rather than after, offering an advantage to them in the job market.
We anticipate that the Biotechnology major will become a popular one. Although there could be no advance advertisement of the major before it was recently approved, freshman enrollment in the major this past Fall was 13. Freshman enrollment in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major was 77 and in the Microbiology major, 25. Our total enrollment this past Fall was estimated to be about 500-550 majors. As you may be aware, a significant number of students do not declare their major until their sophomore or junior year, and some also transfer into our department from other majors. While on the topic of enrollment, 15 new graduate students joined us this past Fall, bringing the total to 71. I don't believe I previously mentioned that the steady state number of post-docs in the department is now around 40.
Personnel
I am sorry to convey to you the sad news that Fred Wedler, Professor of Biochemistry, passed away at the age of 53. Fred was diagnosed with liver cancer during the Fall of 1994 and died only a few weeks thereafter. Contributions can be made to the Fred Wedler Memorial Fund, addressed to our department. When contributions reach the required level, the fund will be endowed and its purpose designated, as for the other endowed funds listed below.
One of you posed the question: "What has happened to Don Grubbs?" Many of you will remember Don as a fixture in our Microbiology teaching laboratories, since he provided dedicated service to the department for 30 years. Don retired from our ranks in 1991.
Leaving Penn State this past year was faculty member Andy Buchman who accepted a position at Exelixis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. as a Scientific Group Leader. Also moving on was Anne Grippo, who ran all of our Biochemistry teaching laboratories. Anne accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Biology at Arkansas State University. Assuming her responsibilities was Ann Marie Daniel who recently received her Ph.D. in Dick Frisque's lab.
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Two new faculty joined our ranks last year. Marty Bollinger, appointed as an assistant professor, received his bachelors degree in chemistry from Penn State, his Ph.D. from MIT working with Joanne Stubbe, and did post-doctoral studies with Chris Walsh at Harvard Medical School. Marty's research focuses on the mechanisms of metalloenzyme and metallocofactor assembly. |
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Greg Ferry joined us as a full professor from Virginia Tech where he spent the last 20 years. His area of specialization is Physiology and Molecular Biology of Anaerobic Microbes. |
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Another faculty note of interest is that David Gilmour has been tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. |
Honors and Awards
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I am pleased to announce that this year's Faculty Scholar Medal was awarded to one of our own, Teh-hui Kao. Each year the University awards one medal to a faculty member in the Life and Health Sciences to recognize a single contribution or a series of contributions around a coherent theme..."that occurred or culminated during the three years preceding the nomination for the award." Teh-hui's research concerns the molecular mechanisms of self-incompatibility in plants. His accomplishments were rated by Discovery magazine as one of the top 75 science stories of 1994 and was one of only four stories featured in the discipline of plant sciences. It is therefore only fitting that Teh-hui has provided the inaugural research description of a faculty member in our department, contained in this Newsletter. |
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I am also pleased to inform you that Jean Brenchley has been selected as the 1996 recipient of the Alice C. Evans Award of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) to recognize her longstanding commitment to the professional development of women in microbiology. "Dr. Brenchley has had a distinguished career in microbiology and has been a researcher and administrator both in academia and in the biotechnology industry; she has been a leader in the scientific community, serving as ASM president in 1986." |
Another significant honor went to an alumnus of our department, Nobel laureate Paul Berg. Paul was the recipient of an honorary degree from Penn State at Spring commencement. The last time an honorary degree was awarded was 40 years ago (in 1955 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was presented an honorary degree). We are quite proud that an alumnus of our department received this distinction.
Paul is one of several alumni of our department who, over the years, have been named as either Distinguished Alumni or Alumni Fellows. A Distinguished Alumnus/a is one whose personal life, professional achievements and community service exemplify the objectives of their Alma Mater. The Alumni Fellows Program is designed to invite prominent and outstanding alumni--leaders in their fields--to return to specific Colleges of the University to lend their expertise through informal contacts with students, faculty and administrators. Those from our department who have been so honored in the past include:
Alumni Fellows
Paul Berg, Wilson Professor of Biochemistry, Stanford University
Richard Nichol, Former President and Executive Officer, Institute for Biological Research and
Development, Inc.
Nicholas Pelic, Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Supelco. Inc.
Verne M. Willaman, Retired President/Chairman, Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
Distinguished Alumni
Paul Berg, Wilson Professor of Biochemistry, Stanford University
Tsann Ming Chu, Director of Cancer Research, Roswell Park Memorial Institute
Verne M. Willaman, Retired President/Chairman, Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
Theses
The following undergraduate students graduated as University Scholars from the department in 1995.
Robert B. Carrigan, BIOCH, Dr. Tu
"Biochemical Analysis of Drosophila Glutathione S-Transferase D27 Mutants"
Steven A. Crone, MCB, Dr. Guiltinan (Biol)
"Use of a Dominant Negative Mutant to Study Plant Gene Regulation"
Aaron C. Goldstrohm, MCB, Dr. Hardison
"Dissecting the Regulation of Mammalian Globin Genes"
Jennifer J. Hill, BIOCH, Dr. Flores (Plant Path)
"Are Defense-Related Proteins Induced by Signal Molecules in Trichosanthes Kirilowii Var. Japonicum Transformed
Root Cultures"
Maria Louise Marco, MICRB, Dr. Miller (Food Sci)
"Effect of Phosphate Limitation on the Periplasmic Cyclic b-(1,2)- Glucans of Rhizobium Meliloti"
John J. McAllister, MCB, Dr. Pugh
"An Investigation of a Proposed Binding Mechanism for Eukaryotic TATA Binding Protein (TBP)"
Akask Patnaik, BIOCH, Dr. Schlegel
"Do Changes in Membrane Surface Hydrophobicity Accompany Apoptosis or Programmed Cell-Death of Lymphocytes?"
Thomas R. Santopoli, MCB, Dr. Gay
"A Method for Assessing Osteoclast Affinity for Nutritionally Altered Bone"
Stephen M. Sharkady, BIOCH, Dr. Miller (Food Science)
"Cyclic b-1, 3-1, 6 glucans of Bradyrhizobium japonicum: Synthesis is not Affected by a Mutation at the exoB
Locus"
Christopher J. Wang, MCB, Dr. Nixon
"Analysis of Mutant Forms of the Transcriptional Activator DctD"
Assy Yacoub, M C B, Dr. Egolf (Chemistry)
"Preparation of Inhibitors of an Anion-Transport Protein Found in the Proximal Tubule Cells of the Kidney's
Nephrons"
The following students received M.S. or Ph.D. degrees in 1994/95:
Leslie Carlini, Ph.D. (MCB) Porter
"In Vivo Effects of Mutational Alteration of Escherichia coli Single-Stranded DNA-Binding Protein"
Hong Chen, M.S. (MCB) Workman
"A Histone-Binding Protein, Nucleoplasmin, Stimulates Transcription Factor Binding to Nucleosomes and
Factor-Induced Nucleosome Disassembly"
Sydney Edwards, Ph.D. (Bioch) Johnson
"Presteady State Kinetic Analysis of DNA Polymerases"
Tongchuan He, Ph.D. (MCB) Wojchowski
"Activation of Mitogenic Signalling Effectors in the Erythropoietin Receptor System"
Barbara Langan, Ph.D. (MCB) Taylor
"The Utility of Episomally Maintained Epstein-Barr Virus-Based Plasmids in Gene Targeting"
Craig Praul, Ph.D. (MCB) Taylor
"Characterization of the Ability of Halobacterium Halobium and Sulfolobus Solfataricus to Respond to Chemical
Mutagens"
Beverly Purnell, Ph.D. (MCB) Gilmour
"D. melanogaster TFIID Makes Multiple Sequence-Specific Contacts in the Core Promoter of Class II Genes"
Wendy Schluchter, Ph.D. (BMMB) Bryant
"The Characterization of Photosystem I and Ferredoxin-NADP+ Oxidoreductase in the Cyanobacterium
Synechococcus Sp. PCC 7002"
Michael Sypes, Ph.D. (Bioch) Gilmour
"An In Vitro Mapping of the Contacts Between the Drosophila Transcription Factor IID and the hsp 70 Promoter"
Hong Tang, Ph.D. (MCB) Dr. Tu
"The Drosophila Glutathione S-Transferase GSTD Genes: Expression, Regulation, and Biochemical Functions"
Debra Taxman, Ph.D. (MCB) Wojchowski
"Erythropoietin-Induced Transcription at the Murine MAJ Globin Promoter: A Central Role for GATA-1"
Janet Weber, Ph.D. (MCB) Gilmour
"The Molecular Architecture of the Drosophila Melanogaster HSP70 Promoter"
Hongming Zhuang, Ph.D. (MCB) Wojchowski
"Functional Roles of Protein Tyrosine Kinase JAK2 in Erythropoiesis"
Zemin Zhang, Ph.D. (BMMB) Buchman
"Yeast Silencers and Anti-Silencing Proteins"
Soohee Chung, Ph.D. (BMMB) Bryant
"Characterization of Chlorosomes in Green Sulfur Bacteria"
Michelle Vettese-Dadey, Ph.D. (BMMB) Workman
"The Function of Acetylated Histone Amino Termini in Transcription Factor Access to DNA Packaged into
Nucleosomes"
Dean Scholl, Ph.D. (BIOCH) Nixon
"Cooperative Binding of DCTD to the dctA UpstreamActivating Sequence in Rhizobium meliloti"
Lisa May, Ph.D. (MCB) Gay
"Signaling Pathways of Parathyroid Hormone in the Regulation of Osteoclasts"
Congratulations!
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130-Year-Old Plant Mating Mystery Solved A gene long suspected of controlling the self-incompatibility mating system in plants has finally been caught in the act by a team of Penn State biologists. Led by Teh-hui Kao, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, the team is the first to show directly that this gene determines whether a plant is able to fertilize itself. |
For more than 130 years, since Darwin observed that some plants can fertilize themselves with their own pollen while others cannot, scientists have been trying to understand exactly what controls this aspect of plant mating. Now, in a paper published in the Feb. 10, 1994 issue of the journal Nature, the Penn State molecular biologists have provided the first direct evidence confirming a theory of genetic self-incompatibility that is the foundation for years of research in plant genetics.
The cornerstone of this theory is the self-incompatibility gene, or "S gene." According to the theory, a plant that cannot fertilize itself has an S gene that is "turned on," enabling it to produce in its pistil a protein that recognizes and rejects its own pollen. If a plant's S gene is "turned off," it does not produce the S protein, so it is able to fertilize itself.
"A protein identified in the early 1980s seemed to be the predicted S protein," says Kao, "but our strongest clues until now were only from indirect evidence." By harnessing standard genetic-engineering techniques, Kao's team was able to neutralize the gene in a group of petunia plants, reversing their inherited inability to fertilize themselves and enabling them to produce seeds. The molecular biologists also inserted the gene into another group of plants, giving them the ability to reject pollen with a specific genetic identity.
The molecular biologists performed two experiments to show that a plant's ability to produce seeds when self pollinated depends on the presence or absence of an active S gene. In the first experiment, they disabled an S gene in a line of self-incompatible plants, then attempted to fertilize them with their own pollen. "We reasoned that if an S protein is required for self-incompatibility interactions between pistil and pollen, then inhibition of its synthesis should lead to the breakdown of self incompatibility," Kao explains.
Each plant has two varieties of the S gene, called S alleles, which it inherits from the parent plants. Kao used petunia plants that had alleles called S2 and S3. He used a genetic engineering technique to produce an "antisense" S3 allele whose DNA sequence order is the reverse of a normal S3 allele's. Normal alleles produce RNA in a normal sequence order that makes genetic "sense." "Antisense RNA is able to block the synthesis of protein from sense RNA in a mysterious way that we no not yet understand," Kao says.
Next, the team, including postdoctoral fellow Hyun-Sook Lee and graduate student Shihshieh Huang, incorporated the antisense S3 allele into a bacterium that they then used to infect the petunia leaves. From these leaves, they grew transgenic plants containing the three alleles, S2, S3 and antisense S3. "Although this is a standard procedure, it turned out to be the most critical step in this experiment," Kao says.
"We struggled for about a year before we were able to successfully grow transgenic petunias."
Kao's team tested these transgenic plants, found they were not producing any S3 protein and attempted to fertilize them with S3 pollen. "A normal plant with S2 and S3 alleles, when pollinated with S3 pollen, will reject the pollen because the S allele types match. The flower's pistil recognizes the pollen as 'self pollen,' fertilization fails, and the plant does not produce seeds," explains the Penn State molecular biologist. "But our transgenic petunias produced the same large number of seeds as you would get from compatible pollination, showing that they had lost the ability to reject self pollen." Kao says this is the first successful attempt to use the antisense approach in any self-incompatible plant species.
Growers of self-incompatible crops such as apples could benefit from this part of Kao's research, according to George Greene, associate professor of pomology at Penn State. Because apples are self-incompatible, commercial apple growers typically mix, in a single orchard block, three varieties that they carefully select to provide sources of compatible pollen. Cultivation of a single self-compatible variety would increase efficiency, Green says, by reducing several cultural and harvesting problems.
In their second experiment, Kao's team put an S3 gene into petunias that contained S1 and S2 alleles. A normal plant with S1 and S2 alleles will accept S3 pollen because the S3 carried by the pollen is different from the S1 and S2 alleles carried by the flower's pistil. However, Kao's team found that some of the transgenic plants produced no seeds at all when pollinated with S3 pollen.
"The transgenic plants that failed to produce any seeds at all had normal levels of S3 protein for a plant containing an S3 gene, which enabled them to acquire the ability to completely reject S3 pollen," Kao explains. "The transgenic plants that produced a few seeds when pollinated with S3 pollen had levels of S3 protein that were much lower than normal, and those transgenic plants producing the most seeds did not have any detectable amount of S3 protein." He adds that this experiment shows that S-protein levels alone control a plant's ability to reject its own pollen -- or pollen whose S allele type is identical to one of those contained in the flower's pistil.
"The ability to prevent plants from fertilizing themselves could double the yield and reduce by one-third to two-thirds the labor costs involved in hybrid seed production," says Richard Craig, professor of plant breeding and the Styer Professor of Horticultural Botany at Penn State. Virtually all commercially important vegetables and many important flowers are produced from F1 hybrid seeds, the result of crossing two purebred plant lines. In order to assure the uniformity of hybrid seeds, growers typically must remove by hand the pollen-producing organs from the seed-producing parent plants, then discard the seed produced by the pollen parents -- sacrificing half the seed crop. "If the plants were 100 percent self-incompatible, you could harvest seed from every plant while using much less costly and more efficient fertilization procedures," Craig explains. "In addition, Dr. Kao's work could provide the key to producing hybrids in many crops where this technique previously has been either inefficient or impossible."
"Confirmation that the S gene encodes the key protein in self-recognition comes as a huge relief to scientists who have published analyses based on that assumption," comments Andrew Clark, professor of biology at Penn State and an authority on the molecular evolution of S alleles.
Craig adds, "Many generations of scientists have devoted their lives to understanding the beautiful system of self-incompatibility in plants. Dr. Kao has added something to this effort that we have been seeking for half a century. His impressively simple and elegant contribution to our understanding of this biological process brings it into the era of modern molecular biology."
Kao says his team's next research goals are to determine whether the S protein, a ribonuclease, digests the pollen's RNA or blocks its growth in some other way and to identify exactly which of the protein's amino acids recognize self-pollen. "We have not yet captured the holy grail of this field, which is to determine the precise biochemical mechanism of self-incompatibility," Kao says, "but this goal is the focus of our work, which looks like it could turn out to be a lifetime project."
This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture.
WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT
In this time of decreased support from the State of Pennsylvania and the extreme difficulty in obtaining Federal funds, contributions to the department become increasingly more important in permitting us to pursue our departmental 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 are those of you who contributed to any of them in 1994.
We greatly appreciate your generous support. Each Newsletter we will publish the names of those of you who have contributed since the previous Newsletter.
Endowed Funds
I am pleased to announce the creation of three new endowments in the department. An anonymous donor has provided the funds necessary to endow the Stanley Person Professorship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Stanley Person Graduate Fellowship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the latter to be awarded to a student in the laboratory of the holder of the Person Professorship. This is a wonderful way to recognize the many important and valuable contributions Stan made to Molecular Biology and Biotechnology during his tenure as a professor at Penn State. Last Fall, I invited Stan to give a seminar to our department and took the opportunity to announce the Person Professorship and Fellowship to the department. Immediately afterward we had a champagne reception in his honor, which he most certainly would not have agreed to had we told him in advance.
Paul Berg has once again shown his generosity toward our department, creating the Paul and Mildred Berg Endowment for Eberly College of Science University Scholars. This endowment joins the Paul and Mildred Berg endowment for support of travel of graduate students to scientific meetings. The new award will provide a summer stipend for selected University Scholars in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Arthur K. Anderson Memorial Award
Irving and Jean Atlas Scholarship in Biochemistry
Paul & Mildred Berg Travel Endowment
Paul & Mildred Berg Scholar Endowment
R. Adams Dutcher Memorial Fund
Charles R. Gerth Scholarship
Kevin Daniel Gilmore Memorial Award
Richard L. Maginnis Memorial Award
Stanley Person Graduate Fellowship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Stanley Person Professorship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Pollard Lecture in Biophysics or Molecular Biology
Stone Lecture in Microbiology
Daniel R. Tershak Memorial Scholarship
Daniel R. Tershak Memorial Graduate Fellowship
Daniel R. Tershak Memorial Teaching Award
OTHER FUNDS
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research
- Biochemistry Program
- Microbiology Program
- Medical Technology Program
- Frederick C. Wedler Memorial Fund in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
| Contributors in 1994
Ms. Norma M. Allewell
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Mrs. Jean J. Pazur
Dr. John H. Pazur Dr. Christine F. Pootjes Mr. James W. Powers, Sr. Mr. James Rayback Miss Carol A. Rhoads Mrs. Sarah A. Robinson Mrs. Peggy L. Schlegel Dr. Robert A. Schlegel Dr. Allen W. Scholl Dr. Spencer L. Shames Dr. Carl E. Sillman Mrs. Kathleen Anderson Sillman Mrs. Katherine Simpson Dr. Thomas Smyth, Jr. Mrs. Roberta Snipes Dr. Wallace C. Snipes Dr. Gerald B.M. Stein Mrs. Judith Blackmer Todd Dr. Paul W. Todd Dr. C.-P. David Tu Mrs. Loretta Tu Mr. Mark J. Tygel Mr. David K. Warren Mrs. Nancy E. Weinreb Dr. Steven M. Weinreb Mrs. Denise Mazzarini Williams Mrs. Mary Prischak Wronski Mrs. Cathy L. Yaffee Dr. Leonard N. Zimmerman Corporations
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1994/95 Distinguished Lectures
Dr. Robert Tjian presented the Russell Marker Lectures in Genetic Engineering, titled "The Biochemistry of Transcription and Gene Regulation." Dr. Tjian is currently an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California-Berkeley.
Dr. Leslie Dutton presented the Pollard Lecture in Biochemistry or Molecular Biology, titled "Design and Engineering of Oxidation-Reduction Proteins." Dr. Dutton is Eldridge Reeves Johnson professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Sankar Adhya presented the Stone Lecture in Microbiology, titled "Gene Regulation by DNA Looping and Unlooping." Dr. Adhya is Chief of the Developmental Genetics Section at the National Institutes of Health.
Alumni News
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Joyce Hollenbach Kirkpatrick (B.S., Med Tech, '45) is semi-retired; continues working as a self-employed physical therapist in Kingwood, Texas. She has 4 children and 5 grandchildren.
'60
Marlin J. Ebert (B.S., Agro, '61; M.S., Biophys, '63) is a Nuclear Medical Scientist and an Environmental Scientist with USAR. He also owns a private consulting firm in Kailua-Kona, HI.
Arnold S. Bleiweis (Ph.D., Micrb, '64) is Graduate Research Professor and Chair, Department of Oral Biology at the University of Florida. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis by oral strepto-cocci. He's been at the University of Florida for 27 years.
Muriel T. Davisson (Ph.D., Genetics, '69) is Director of Genetic Resources and Senior Staff Scientist at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, ME. Her research involves mouse models of human inherited diseases, including single gene spontaneous mutations and a chromosomal model of Down Syndrome which she developed. Her husband, Farrell (Collegian advisor, 1963-1969, and a faculty member in the Department of Journalism) passed away in April, 1993. They have one son (Swen).
Charles L. Harris (Ph.D., Biophysics, '69) holds the position of Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at SUNY-Plattsburg and continues to do research on neuroscience, using the cockroach which he began at Penn State. The second edition of his textbook, Concepts in Zoology, should be out in the fall.
Ronald C. Johnson (M.S., Bioch, '68) retired June 1995 after 30 years as an Associate Research Biochemist at the Brain Behavior Research Center, University of California-San Francisco.
Richard F. Mortensen (M.S., Micrb, '69; Ph.D., Micrb, '73) is Professor of Microbiology at Ohio State University and is still actively involved in basic research and teaching after 21 years.
Carter Schroy (B.S., Biophys, '69; M.S., Biophys, '74; Ph.D., Biophys, '78) is a Medical Physicist (Radiation Oncology) and a self-employed consultant in Del Mar, CA.
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John F. Gier, (B.S., Micrb, '72) is a Water Plant Super-intendent at U.S. Water, Inc. in Somerville, NJ.
Michael Blotzer (B.S., Bioch, '73) is Chief, Industrial Hygiene and Health Physic Office at the Lewis Research Center , a division of NASA. His wife and two children reside in Bay Village, OH.
Eugene V. Genovesi (B.S., Micrb, '73) went on to get his Ph.D. and is currently a Senior Research Investigator in the Host-Response Biology Laboratory at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Wallingford, CT.
Lawrence W. Griest (B.S., Bioch, '73) is Vice President of PermaGrain Products, Inc. in Karthaus, PA.
Thomas F. Murphy (B.S., Micrb, '73) is the owner of a commercial land corporation. He and his wife Patricia (a flight attendant for American Airlines) live in Dallas, TX.
Asli Tolun (M.S., Biophys, '73) received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at Uppsala University (Sweden) in '79 and was a Post-doc with Dr. Helinski at the University of California-San Diego from 1979-82. He is currently Professor, Department of Biology, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. His research interests include human genetic disorders.
Richard W. Wicks (B.S., Bioch, '73) is the President of Fortron Bio Science located in Morrisville, NC, a company he founded in 1987 which deals with new diagnostic test-ing for myocardial infarction and research in biochemistry of autism. He and his wife have 3 daughters.
Robert F. Cleveland, Jr. (M.S., Biophys, '71; Ph.D., Biophys, '74) is an Environmental Scientist with the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for policy development and technical projects that deal with environmental safety and health, and has recently published a chapter in a book series on electromagnetic fields, biological effects, sources, etc.
Dana L. Diedrich (Ph.D., Micrb, '74) is Professor of Microbiology (and Interim Dean, College of Pharmacy) at Idaho State University in Pocatello, ID.
John C. Weiser (B.S., Biophys, '74) received his Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 and his professional certification from the American Board of Radiology in Diagnostic Radiological Physics in 1994. He is a Chief Scientist with the U.S. Army Medical Research & Material Command at Ft. Detrick, MD and is currently working on the implementation of digital networking and telecommunications for medical imaging applications within the Department of Defense.
Larry Witek (B.S., Bioch, '74) is owner of Sunstar Homes in Fuquay, NC. He and his wife (Dori) have a daughter (Kyle Emily) who was born September 22, 1994.
Timothy G. Biro (B.S., Micrb, '75) also received a B.S. in Pharmacy '80 from Temple University and an M.B.A. in '91 from the Wharton School of Medicine. He is a General Partner with Brantley Venture Partners in Cleveland, Ohio, is married and has 2 children.
Wanda K. Jones (B.S., Med Tech, '75) received her Ph.D. in '88 from the University of North Carolina, and is serving as Acting Associate Director for Women's Health with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.
Linda J. McCown (B.S., Med Tech, '75) is an Assistant Professor at Central Washington University in Yakima, WA and was included in "Who's Who in the West" in 1994/95.
Brian Q. Phillippy (B.S., Micrb, '75; M.S., Food Sci, '78) received his Ph.D. in Food Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts in 1984 and is currently a chemist with USDA, conducting research on in-sitol phosphate metabolism in plants.
Robert J. Drummond (Ph.D., Bioch, '76) is employed as Principal Scientist at Chiron Corporation in Emoryville, CA and is working on inhibitors of angiogenesis.
James J. Gaul (B.S., Bioch, '76) is a Neurologist (private practice) in Langhorne, PA.
David A. Reiher (B.S., Bioch, '76) is a Medical Technologist at the Victory Memorial Hospital in Waukegan, IL.
Donna Perichak Gasper (B.S., Med Tech, '77) is an Engineering Manager at Millipore Corporation in Bedford, MA.
Nancy A. (Schroedl) Krizan (Ph.D., Bioch, '77) is a Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Muscle Regen-eration Laboratory at Alfred I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware and Research Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University. Nancy and Tim (an organic chemist with E.I. Dupont) have one daughter (Julie) born July 9, 1994.
Sandra A. Borkowski Orcutt (B.S., Micrb, '77) is a homemaker and homeschooler. She and her husband, Michael, have 2 children.
Arnold H. Horwitz (Ph.D., Micrb, '78) is Director of Molecular Microbiology at XOMA Corporation in Santa Monica, CA.
Kathryn (Sedor) Kimmerling (B.S., Micrb, '78) lives in Canada with husband Karl (Metallurgy, '79) and two daughters, Kelly 7 and Kristin 4. Prior to her move to Canada, she received a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Akron in May, 1990.
Howard T. Petrie (B.S., Micrb, '78; M.S., Micrb, '83) went on to get his Ph.D. and is a Scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Joellen M. Schidkraut (Ph.D., Micrb, '78) is Assistant Professor at Duke University in Durham, NC.
Beverly (Burdis) Wanchalk (B.S., Med Tech, '78) works at Community Hospital in Lancaster, PA. She and her husband (David) have three children (Jessica, Jonathan, & Kyle).
Paul E. Wanda (M.S., Biophys, '75; Ph.D., Biophysics, '78) was recently promoted to Full Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. His research focuses on "Signal Transduction, Metastasis of human leukemia cell lines."
Bruce Wiggins (B.S., Micrb, '78) is an Associate Professor of Biology at James Madison University, teaching general microbiology and microbial ecology.
Peter Aplan (B.S., Biophys, '79) received his Ph.D. in 1983 from the Milton S. Hershey School of Medicine. He is currently a Cancer Research Pediatrician at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, an Assistant Attending Physician at Children's Hospital of Buffalo, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at SUNY-Buffalo.
Marcia Kerbelis Kennedy (B.S., Biophys, '79) is Senior Territory Business Manager with Bristol-Meyers Squibb in Princeton, NJ. She and her husband have three children.
F. Leland Thaete (B.S., Bioch, '79) received his M.D. from the Hershey Medical Center in '83 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He and his wife (Cynthia) have one daughter (Jennifer).
'80
Kevin L. Dreher (Ph.D., Bioch, '80) is working in the Health Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in North Carolina.
Lisa Wagner Ryan (B.S., Micrb, '80) received an M.S. in Microbiologoy/Immunology at West Virginia Medical School in '83 and a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Pittsburgh in '92. She completed 3 years of post-doctoral fellowship in the Pulmonary Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital/Program in Immunology at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Mary Vermeulen and is currently a Research Biologist and Principal Investigator with the Immunotoxicology Branch of EPA in Research Triangle Park, NC.
Keith Bradley (B.S., Biophys, '81) is an Emergency Management Specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C., which involves working with federal, state and local emergency planners and responders to prepare for problems with the destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile.
Judy Kipe-Nolt (Ph.D., Micrb, '81) is currently employed at Bloomsburg University.
Thomas M. Smith (B.S., Bioch, '81)worked at the Wistar Institute at the University of Pennsylvania before joining SmithKline-Beecham Pharmaceuticals in 1986. He is currently an Investigator in Purification Process Development for Therapeutic Proteins. He and his wife have five children.
Sandra J. Sterry (B.S., Micrb, '82) is a research officer in the Pathology/Immunology Department at Monash University Medical School in Melbourne, Australia.
Dagmar Tichy Stein (B.S., Micrb, '82) received his Ph.D. in '86 and his M.D. in '90 from the Hershey Medical Center. He is currently a Pediatric Hemelonc Fellow at NIH/NCI and resides in Potamac, MD.
Bradley Stiles (B.S., Micrb, '82) received his Ph.D. in Anaerobic Microbiology from Virginia Tech in '87 and is a scientist stationed at Fort Detrick.
Judith Gatesman MacCabe (B.S., Micrb, '82) married Thomas Shea MacCabe (B.S., CmpSci, '81). Judith and her family (husband AND 6 children!) live in Richmond, VA.
Renee M. Wagner (Ph.D., Bioch, '82) is a Supervisory Research Chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, MD.
Robert H. Bonneau (B.S., Micrb, '83) received his Ph.D. in Micrb/Immunol from the College of Medicine in '89 and is now an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Hershey Medical Center.
Thomas D. Hurley, (B.S., Bioch, '83) received his Ph.D. in '90 from Indiana University (Biochemistry) then did postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins until 1992. He's now an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis.
Bernadette T. Lowthert (B.S., Micrb, '83) completed her M.B.A. in Marketing in 1992, and is employed by SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories in Norristown.
Corinne E.M. (Miller) Olesen (B.S., Micrb., '83) is a Scientist with Tropix, Inc. in Bedford, MA.
Timothy A. Subashi (B.S., Micrb, '83) is a Microbiologist in the Natural Products Discovery Department at Pfizer, Inc. Tim and his wife (Frances - B.S., SplEd, '84) have 2 children.
Hank Seifert (Ph.D., MCB, '84) is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology/Immunology at Northwestern University. He and his wife have one son.
James G. Zangrilli, Jr. (B.S., MCB, '84) went on to get his M.D. and was awarded an Allen and Hanburys Respiratory Institute Pulmonary Fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine.
Brian Del Buono (M.S., Micrb, '85; Ph.D., Micrb, '87) is Research Scientist and Manager of Research and Development with Becton Dickinson/ Collaborative Biomedical Products in Bedford, MA.
Catherine Kappel Hall, (B.S., Bioch, '85) received her Ph.D. in 1991 from Northwestern University (Tumor Cell Biology), is married, and working as a Research Associate with the American Red Cross in Rockville, MD.
Jill (Beck) Keeney (B.S., Bioch, '85) received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Washington University in '90 and was a postdoctoral student at Johns Hopkins until '94. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Juniata College. Jill and her husband (Martin) have one son.
Roy M. Long (B.S., MCB, '85) received his doctoral degree in '94 from Penn State-Hershey and is currently a postdoctoral student in Dr. Robert Songer's lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Rebecca M. Terns (B.S., Micrb, '85) received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Molecular Biology from Northwestern University in 1992 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin from 1992-95. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia.
Christian Hansen (B.S., Micrb, '86) graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in June of '94 and is presently in a 5-year pathology residency at the University of California-Davis Medical Center.
Amy (Donnermeyer) Jessop (B.S., Micrb, '86) completed her M.Ph. degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University.
Lisa M. (Heckler) Jones (B.S., Micrb, '86) is an Assistant Scientist with Magainin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Plymouth Meeting, PA.
Cathy A. (Musco) Kodroff (B.S., Micrb, '86) is a Senior Associate with Howson and Howson, a Philadelphia-based law firm where she practices patent, trademark and copyright law.
Yongping Luo (B.S., Bioch, '86) received her M.S. degree at West Virginia University in '88 and her Ph.D. in Math from the University of Houston. She is a post-doctoral fellow in the Math Department at the University of Saskatchewan.
Cynthia Martincic (B.S., Bioch, '86) is a Water Quality Specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.
Deborah (Shepps) Pudiak (B.S., MCB, '86) is a graduate student in the Department of Immunology at the University of Rochester.
Joseph M. Luettgen (B.S., Micrb, '87) is a Scientist with DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals in Wilmington, Delaware. He and his wife (Lynne Speicher, B.S., Psych, '89) have a son (Jonathan Michael, born July 2, '94).
William P. Swaney (B.S., MCB, '87) is a Research Specialist at the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and a Masters degree student at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. He was married in September, 1994.
Denise Blysick-McKenna (B.S., Micrb, '87) is a Senior Microbiologist with Best Foods, a division of CPC International. She and her husband, Raymond, became the proud parents of a son (Ryan) on September 2, 1994.
Wayne M. Garafola (B.S., Micrb, '87) is an Application Engineering at Sartorius Corporation in Edgewood, NY.
Karen Ponzely (B.S., Micrb, '88) Is a Healthcare Systems Consultant in Malvern, PA. She was married to Peter Litak (B.S., Bioch, '88) in October 1995.
Karen M. Davis (B.S., Micrb, '89) expects to receive her Ph.D. in the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Graduate Program at Ohio State University in Spring '96. Her research involves structure-function studies of a novel member of the Epidermal Growth Factor family of growth factors, HB-EGF. Karen's husband, Keith Fleischer, is also a Penn State alumni, graduating in Broadcast Communications in '89.
Michael J. Gehman (B.S., Micrb/Med Tech, '89) graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He received the William Dickerson Memorial Award for Excellence in the Practice of Infectious Disease. He began his Residency in Internal Medicine at the Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, PA in July of 1995.
Catherine E. (Ristey) Patterson (B.S., MCB, '89) completed her M.A. at Princeton in June '94 and is currently working on her Ph.D.
'90
Pamela E. Bennett-Baker (B.S., Micrb, '90) had been working as a Research Associate for the University of Michigan's Human Genome Center until becoming a Ph.D. Student in the same department. Pam is married to James B. Baker (B.S., Honors MCB & Pre-Med, '90) since 1991. Jim graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School last spring and is currently a resident in the Dept. of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Hospitals.
Chris Cabell (B.S., MCB, '90) graduated from Duke School of Medicine in May '94 and has started Residency in Internal Medicine at the Duke Medical Center. Chris and his wife (Anne) have one daughter (Meghen).
Jeff DeJong (Ph.D., Bioch, '90) was a postdoctoral student in Bob Roeder's lab at Rockefeller University in New York, but recently accepted an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas (Program of Molecular and Cell Biology). His wife, Jing Hong Mu (Ph.D., MCB, '93) is a postdoctoral student at Rockefeller University.
Stephen M. Rentz (B.S., Bioch, '90) is employed as a Bioanalytical Chemist at Berlex Laboratories, Inc. in Cedar Knolls, NJ.
David K. Warren (B.S., MCB, '90) graduated cum laude with a doctor of medicine from the University of Pittsburgh in May '94. He is currently a Housestaff Physician in the Department of Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO.
Kim (Lacher) Wilson (B.S., Micrb, '90) is a Research Technician at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA working on the Human Genome project-developing protocols for large scale PCR using automated robotic systems.
Antony M. DeGiosio (B.S., Bioch, '91) is completing is Masters degree in Chemistry at Bucknell University. His research involves CZE separations of proteins and peptides. He and his wife have one daughter (and one on the way).
Timothy S. Fisher (B.S., Micrb, '91) is an Assistant Scientist at Pfizer Central Research in Groton, CT, and married Amy Jackson (Ph.D. candidate in Frank Pugh's lab) in September, 1995.
Donald J. Marsh (B.S., Bioch, '91) is pursuing his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Colorado State University. He and his wife, Pamela, live in Ft. Collins.
Leann Avery (M.S., Bioch, '92) is an Experiment Support Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. She married Jonathan Naughton (PSU-Mechanical Engineering) on September 2, 1995. Leann is directly involved in the Shuttle-Mir Missions in which joint U.S.-Russian experiments will fly on the U.S. Shuttle to the Russian Space Station.
David Kuo (B.S., Micrb, '92) is a 3rd year medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and was recently engaged to Katherine Elliott (B.S., Micrb., '92), a 2nd year graduate student in Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael A. Dolan (B.S., MCB, 93) is a Research Specialist in the Eye and Ear Institute at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Karen E. Miller (B.S., Bioch, '93) is a Ph.D. candidate in the (retrovirus biology) laboratory of Dr. Janice Clements at Johns Hopkins University.
Amy J. Rippon (B.S., Bioch, '93) is currently a Research Technician at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. She plans to return to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemistry.
Sydney Edwards (Ph.D., MCB, '94) spent two months at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, where he did independent study on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical development in Japan. Syd has moved on to the MIT-Sloan School of Management where he will complete a 2-year management training program on pharmaceutical development.
Peter Emanuel (Ph.D., MCB, '94) is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. When Peter last wrote, he and his wife, Diana, were expecting their first child sometime before Thanksgiving.
Gregory E. Holt (B.S., MCB, '94) is a Ph.D. candidate at Loyola University in Chicago.
Brooks Kelly (Ph.D., MCB, '94) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Boystown National Research Hospital and is studying the molecular biology of the inner ear and audiology centers of the human brain.
Andrew V. Samuelson (B.S., MCB, '94) is enrolled in the Genetics Graduate Program at SUNY-Stonybrook, currently rotating in Carol Greider's lab at Cold Spring Harbor.
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