Research Headlines The HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute) grant to support undergraduate instruction and research in the BB and other life science departments has been renewed. Information for supported summer programs will be coming. DNA is a double-helix, right? - Shing Ho's group publishes a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science describing the first steps towards a complete structural characterization of all possible sequences of a particular DNA type. A halogen WHAT? - Shing Ho's group coauthors a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science describing the prevalence and structural characteristics of halogen bonds in biological molecules. Hydrogen peroxide, friend AND foe - Andy Karplus coauthors a paper in Science describing a novel "floodgate model" to explain how activation and inactivation of peroxiredoxin allows the cell to respond to hydrogen peroxide as a potent oxidant and as a cellular signal Detecting bioterrorism agents - Phil McFadden's efforts to develop cytosensors from fish chromatophors was a main feature in a story on detecting bioterrorism agents in Chemical and Engineering News Rejuvenating Rats - Two papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science by Tory Hagen (Investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics) and Bruce Ames (University of California, Berkeley) show that a combination of acetyl-l-carnitine and an antioxidant, alpha-lipoic acid, work synergistically to improve the activity of old rats to levels seen in middle-aged rats.
Faculty Awards and Recognition Kevin Ahern receives the 2005 Dar Reese Award for Excellence at OSU. P. Andrew Karplus is named the 2005 Researcher of the Year by the OSU chapter of Sigma Xi. P. Shing Ho receives a Fulbright grant to study RNA structure in Strasbourg, France during the summer of 2005. P. Shing Ho, receives the Discovery Award from the Oregon Medical Foundation and Researcher of the Year Award for 2002 from the OSU chapter of Sigma Xi. P. Andrew Karplus, receives the Milton Harris Award for Basic Research from the College of Science at OSU.
Faculty Promotions Michael Freitag joins the BB faculty as an Assistant Professor. Jeffrey Greenwood is promoted to Associate Professor with indefinite tenure. Elisar Barbar joins the BB faculty as an Associate Professor. Dr. Barbar holds a prestigous NSF CAREER award that supports research in the structure and function of motor proteins by NMR. Joseph S. Beckman, the Ava Helen Pauling Professor of the Linus Pauling Institute and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, has been appointed the new director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at OSU. Christopher K. Mathews, retired as Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in June of 2002. A symposium was held on May 31 at the LaSells Stewart Center in honor of his nearly quarter century of service to the department and OSU. | 
