Six New Members Join NIGMS Advisory Council
Photo: NIGMS
Six new members recently joined the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council:
Dr. Darrin Akins is associate dean for research in the College of Medicine and professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. He investigates membrane protein export in cells and how this fundamental process is regulated and altered in bacteria when they encounter changes in their environment or interact with human tissues and cells.
Dr. Celeste Berg is a professor in the department of genome sciences and molecular and cellular biology program at the University of Washington. She uses the fruit fly to investigate cell communication and cell migration, two processes critical for development and human disease progression.
Dr. Squire Booker is a professor in the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology and Eberly family distinguished chair in science at Pennsylvania State University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His research is focused on deciphering the molecular details by which enzymes containing iron-sulfur clusters catalyze reactions in the cell and using this insight to manipulate these reactions for use in making biofuels or antibacterial agents.
Dr. Enrique De La Cruz is a professor in the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University. He integrates computer models with biochemical and biophysical experiments to study how actin molecules—essential for cell movement and muscle contraction—form and break.
Dr. Peter Espenshade is a professor in the department of cell biology, executive director of the Center for Innovation in graduate biomedical education and associate dean for graduate biomedical education at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He uses a multi-organismal approach to understand mechanisms of nutrient sensing—which are important for cell stability—with particular interest in cholesterol and oxygen.
Dr. John Younger is cofounder and chief technology officer of Akadeum Life Sciences in Ann Arbor, Mich. His research and development efforts focus on cellular interactions with engineered materials and applying those effects to unmet challenges in cell, protein and nucleic acid isolation from clinical material.