Graduate Student Amy Shih has recently been awarded the prestigious Beckman Institute Fellowship. Amy is a joint graduate student with Klaus Schulten (Department of Physics) and has published ground breaking work in understanding the assembly and disassembly of lipoprotein particles which play a critical role in cholesterol metabolism, inflammation and cardiovascular health in humans. Her graduate thesis work uses sophisticated experimental and theoretical methodologies and was recently featured as the cover article for the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

Initiated in the fall of 1991 with funding from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Beckman Fellows Program provides an opportunity for young scientists to spend several years doing independent research before launching their formal academic careers. Fellows are selected on the basis of their professional promise, capacity for independent work, interdisciplinary interests, and outstanding achievement to date.

Amy intends to use this independent career path to develop a proteomics and bioinformatics research program aimed at understanding the structure and function of human cytochromes P450s. [March 2008]

Working under collaborative support from the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center devoted to the development of novel patterning and detection modalities, researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois recently reported methodologies advancing toward the goal of rapid and sensitive means for the high throughput screening of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).  Representing the targets for more than half of marketed human therapeutics, GPCRs are integral membrane proteins which were heretofore difficult to isolate in a stable and active form.  Additionally, their low abundance in native tissues or heterologous expression systems mandates an extremely sensitive assay.  Combining the Nanodisc technology developed in the Sligar laboratory and novel mass spectrometry method using self-assembled monolayers from Mrksich's group, senior scientists T. H.  Bayburt and V. L. Marin reported the successful monitoring of G-protein binding to a Nanodisc assembled GPCR (Marin, V. L., Bayburt, T. H., Sligar, S. G., and Mrksich, M. (2007)  "Functional Assays of Membrane-Bound Proteins with SAMDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry."  Angew. Chem, Int. Ed 46, 8796-8798.).  The work was recently highlighted in the "Analytical Currents" news section of Analytical Chemistry (80, 515, 2008). [February 2008]

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We are proud to announce that 2007 was a banner year in the number of publications appearing in print as a result of research operations in the Sligar laboratory at the University of Illinois and with our numerous outstanding collaborators. The 22 citations appearing last year are available here (PDF file).

On the right is a graph of the number of Sligar authorships since matriculating as a graduate student in Physics, through 2007. The zeros correspond to the first three years of graduate work, and the two years following the move to Yale University as an Assistant Professor in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. The dip in 1982 corresponds to the move back to Illinois as professor in Biochemistry.

Stephen Sligar and his current research group celebrated 30 years of support from NIH at the recent holiday gathering. Notes Sligar: "I began my independent scientific career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. When I asked Fred Richards about 'start-up support' he responded '… But you will have an NIH grant to start when you arrive – right?’ GM24976 was funded to start in the 1977-1978 academic year. The grant number was changed to GM31756 when I moved to Illinois in the Fall of 1984. Due to the productivity of an outstanding group of post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and technical staff, multiple competitive renewals were successful including conversion to a MERIT award in 1999. We owe a great deal of gratitude to NIH program officers and peer review groups that have allowed this three decades of research on "Heme Protein Reductases" to flourish". [December 2007]

A publication from the laboratory of Stephen G. Sligar in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois has just been recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a "Hot Paper".

As defined by Thomson ISI®'s Essential Science Indicators, Hot Papers are articles published within the last 2 years receiving the most citations over the most recent 2-month period. The cited work relates to the molecular functions of the Cytochromes P450, enzymes which play central roles in hormone biosynthesis and catabolic detoxification in humans, plants, animals and microbes: Structure and Chemistry of Cytochrome P450 Denisov, I. G.; Makris, T. M.; Sligar, S. G.; Schlichting, I. Chem. Rev.; 2005; 105(6); 2253-2278. [November 1, 2007]

Aleksandra Kijac has been awarded the Eugene Rabinowitch Graduate Fellowship from the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology. Aleks is working on solid state NMR of integral membrane proteins self-assembled into Nanodiscs in collaboration with Professor Chad Rienstra in the Department of Chemistry.

LAS Dean Sarah Mangelsdorf has announced that Professor Stephen Sligar will be MCB's new Director. Mangelsdorf wrote that professor Sligar, "will serve as Interim Director beginning September 16 until the Board of Trustees provides formal approval. Again, we are most grateful to Charles Miller for his willingness to continue to serve the school while the negotiations concluded and wish him well as he enjoys his sabbatical and returns to full-time faculty status. I thank you all for your cooperation and support during this important search. I look forward to working with Steve in advancing biology at Illinois." [September 2007]

Steve Sligar Elected as a Fellow of the Biophysical Society "for work in advancing our knowledge of biological function through concerted application of numerous biophysical methods." [August 22, 2007] (Link to the PDF file where BPS names 2008 Award Recipients)

Bayburt, T.H., Leitz, A.J., Xie, G., Oprian, D.D., and Sligar, S.G. (2007) "Transducin Activation by Nanoscale Lipid Bilayers Containing One and Two Rhodopsins."  JBC On-Line J. Biol. Chem, 10.1074/jbc.M701433200 is on the Fac1000 (Faculty of 1000 Biology) must read list:

Shih, A. Y., Freddolino, P. L., Sligar, S. G. and Schulten, K. (2007) "Disassembly of Nanodiscs with Cholate" NanoLetters, online nl0706906 art citation: