Welch Foundation Gives $250,000 Award To HHMI's Krebs And NHLBI's Stadtman

November 11, 1991 HHMI's Krebs And NHLBI's Stadtman Welch Foundation Gives $250,000 Award To HHMI's Krebs And NHLBI's Stadtman The Houston-based Robert A. Welch Foundation has named Edwin G. Krebs and Earl Reece Stadtman corecipients of the 1991 Robert A. Welch Award. Krebs is a senior investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor in the department of pharmacology at the University of Washington in Seattle. Stadtman is the chief of the laboratory of biochemistry at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of chemistry (The Scientist, Aug. 20 1999, page 26), was presented to Krebs and Stadtman last month. The two split a $250,000 unrestricted cash reward, and each received a gold medallion and a certificate. Krebs and Statdman are noted for their research into the basic principles governing cellular regulation, particularly covalent chemical modification, a mechanism occurring frequently in biological systems to control the activities of enzymes. Krebs, 73, is best known for his protein phosphorylation investigations, begun in the 1950s and early 1960s with Edmund H. Fischer, also of the University of Washington. Their worked showed that interconversion between the active and inactive forms of phosphorylase (an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of glycogen) involves phosphorylation. "For a number of years," says Krebs,"there were relatively very few of us working in the area of protein phosphorylation. At first, the field was restricted to people who had an interest in glycogen metabolism." It was later shown, however, that the process of phosphorylation activates or deactivates enzymes critical to the regulation of nearly every vital biological function, and consequently, research activity in the field has blossomed. In the late 1960s, Krebs became one of the first researchers to describe protein kinases. Among his most notable findings was the discovery of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinases in 1068 (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 243:3763-75). He has received many honors and awards for his work; among them are a 1989 Lasker award (The Scientist, Oct. 2, 1989, page 20), a 1978 Gairdner Foundation award, and 1988 Passano Foundation award. While most of these honors recognize the importance of his research to biology or medicine, the Welch award marks "the first time that an organization which directs its attention toward the whole field of chemistry has recognized protein phosphorylation as being important," he says. Stadtman, 71, has conducted research on adenylylstion, which, Krebs notes, is "a different way of modifying proteins to regulate their function." Says Krebs: "His field and my field sort of merged in a broad sense in the 1960s." Stadtman has shown that covalent interconvertible enzyme cascades provide a cell with a regulatory mechanism capable of integrating a vast amount of metabolic information. He has also shown that protein oxidation is implicated in such phenomena as aging, inflammatory diseases, and in some neurologic disorders. (J. Biol. Chem.,266:2005-8, 1991.). Stadtman, who has been at NIH since 1950, says that in the past four decades, "the size of the organization has grown enormously. When I arrived here, they were building Building 10. Now, I think, there are close to 50 buildings." Accompanying that growth, he says, has been "a large increase in the bureaucracy of the organization. It's much harder to do research here now then it was in the mid-'60s; the rules and regulations are more numerous." Despite frustrations such as NIH's restrictions on travel and outside work, Stadtman says, he remains at the agency because "at NIH we are not obliged to secure money from outside granting agencies; we are more or less guaranteed support to the extent that we are productive." Krebs received an A.B. in chemistry in 1940 from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and an M.D. in 1943 from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. He served his internship and assistant residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital in St.Louis. In 1948, he was appointed an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington; he became an associate professor in 1957, and an assistant dean for planning in the School of Medicine in 1966. In 1966, he became a professor and chairman of the department of biological chemistry at the University of California, Davis. In 1977, he became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor and chairman of the department of pharmacology at the University of Washington. He has been an NAS member since 1973. Stadtman received a B.S. in soil science in 1942 and a Ph.D. in 1949 in comparative biochemistry, both from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined NIH in 1950 as a chemist in the laboratory of cellular physiology in the National Heart Institute. In 1962, he became chief of NHLBI's laboratory of biochemistry. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1969. --Barbara Spector Joan W. Miller Joan W. Miller has been appointed director of the vitreo-retinal service and assistant chief of ophthalmology at the Boston-based New England Eye Center. Miller has also become an assistant professor in the department of ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine. Miller, 33, received an S.B. degree in 1980 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.D. in 1985 from Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship in 1986 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass., and her residency in 1989 at the department of ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. After the completion of her residency, she did a two-year vitreo-retinal fellowship at the retina service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Miller's research has included investigations of drug therapy for abnormal new blood vessels in the eye, photodynamic therapy using exogenous chromophores and laser light, and the development of lasers for surgical dissection in the eye. Her long-term research interests include development of drug therapies for diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. Mary A. Walter Mary A. Walter has been appointed vice president, technology development, at the Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF) of San Antonio. TRTF is a nonprofit foundation that owns and operates the 1,500-acre Texas Research Park in San Antonio. In her new position, Walter will work with the Texas scientific community to identify and assess new technologies with commercial applicability. Walter received her B.S. in microbiology and chemistry in 1973 and her M.S. in microbiology in 1974, both from the University of Illinois, Urbana. She earned her Ph.D. in 1984 in microbiology and immunology from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. She did postdoctoral research from 1984 to 1985 at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research, Merck & Co. Inc., Rahway, N.J., and from 1985 to 1986 at the Oregon Health Sciences University department of biochemistry and Shriners Hospital in Portland. From 1990 to 1991, Walter was an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio. From 1989 to 1990, she operated her own company, Walter Scientific Consulting Service, which offered consulting on clinical and food microbiology, molecular biology, compliance with Food and Drug Administration regulations, research and development, quality control, and marketing. From 1987 to 1989, she was chief of microbiology and immunoserology for the United States Air Force in Wiesbaden, Germany, and served at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Diego. From 1979 to 1980, she worked in R&D and was a production manager at ICN MedLabs (a division of ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.) in Portland.

Welch Foundation Gives $250,000 Award To HHMI's Krebs And NHLBI's Stadtman

Welch Foundation Gives $250,000 Award To HHMI's Krebs And NHLBI's Stadtman

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