精品国产一区二区桃色

Member News

Okafor recognized; Baserga joins group; award for Bollinger

ASBMB Today Staff
Feb. 27, 2023

AAAS, NIH recognize Okafor 

Denise Okafor, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, was recently selected to receive the 2023  from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and late last year she won a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health. 

Outdoor portrait of Denise Okafor
Denise Okafor

Okafor is an assistant professor in the departments of biochemistry and molecular biology and chemistry at Penn State, where explores structural mechanisms of signaling and regulation in protein complexes. She and her team use simulations to determine how conformational dynamics of proteins change in various functional states. She is especially drawn to the study of nuclear receptors, with their complex regulatory mechanisms.

As a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University School of Medicine, Okafor used molecular dynamics simulations to study ligand regulation and functional evolution in nuclear receptors.

The AAAS award is named for Marion Tuttle Milligan Mason, who aimed to support the advancement of women in the chemical sciences and honor her family's commitment to higher education for women. Endowed by her estate, the Mason award is granted every two years to four or five women at the start of their academic research careers, giving each scientist $55,000 to support their basic research in the chemical sciences.

The 2022 New Innovator Award supports early-career investigators who propose innovative, high-impact projects in the biomedical, behavioral or social sciences that relate to the NIH mission. Some 70 researchers around the country were selected in 2022. The $1.5 million multiyear award will fund Okafor’s project, .

Baserga joins NASEM RNA modifications group

Susan Baserga, a professor at Yale University, is helping advise the U.S. government on direct sequencing of modifications in RNA.

portrait of Susan Barserga
Susan Baserga

Baserga has been named to a new committee, Towards Sequencing and Mapping of RNA Modifications. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, or NASEM, launched the group last year to assess current techniques and goals for the direct sequencing of RNA modifications.

The committee will evaluate scientific and technological discoveries, and related infrastructure and workforce needs to better understand the roles RNA changes play in human health and disease. The group aims to produce a report with recommendations for decision makers. 

Baserga chairs the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Women in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Committee and was a member of the Public Affairs Advisory Committee for 6 years. She received the society’s William C. Rose Award in 2016.

Baserga is a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of genetics and of therapeutic radiology at Yale. In her laboratory, she studies ribosome biogenesis, the nucleolus, human diseases linked to ribosomes, known as ribosomopathies, and the impact of ribosome biogenesis on cell growth, cell division and cancer. 

Bollinger receives Abeles and Jencks Award 

This year’s Abeles and Jencks Award for the Chemistry of Biological Processes goes to J. , Jr. a professor at the Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science.

portrait of Martin Bollinger
Martin Bollinger

Administered by the Division of Biological Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, the award was created in 2022 to honor Robert Abeles and William Jencks, trail-blazing researchers in biochemistry. Bollinger is only the second recipient. The first was Karen Allen, also a member of the 精品国产一区二区桃色.

Bollinger is a professor in the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, where he helped assemble a renowned bioinorganic chemistry group. He credits his co-director, Carsten Krebs, and their students, postdocs and collaborators of two decades for the recent honor. Bollinger and Krebs, a professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and molecular biology, study how enzymes use metal ions and to catalyze reactions involving oxygen.

“The science in which I have been involved has always been a team effort, and all credit for this honor goes to the team,” Bollinger said in . 

He has received numerous recognitions throughout his career, including the ASBMB’s  in 2022, the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry Early Career Award in 2008, the Searle Scholar Award in 1996, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award in 1995. In 2010, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Bollinger will receive the Abeles and Jencks Award, which consists of a $6,000 honorarium and a medal, at the ACS National Meeting scheduled for August in San Francisco.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
ASBMB Today Staff

This article was written by a member or members of the ASBMB Today staff.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in People

People highlights or most popular articles

In memoriam: Ralph G. Yount
In Memoriam

In memoriam: Ralph G. Yount

July 28, 2025

He was a professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry at Washington State University and an ASBMB member for 58 years.

From dust to discovery
Profile

From dust to discovery

July 23, 2025

From makeshift classrooms in Uganda to postdoctoral research in Chicago, MOSAIC scholar Elizabeth Kaweesa builds a legacy in women鈥檚 health.

Fliesler wins scientific and ethical awards
Member News

Fliesler wins scientific and ethical awards

July 21, 2025

He is being honored by the University at Buffalo and the American Oil Chemists' Society for his scientific achievements and ethical integrity.

Hope for a cure hangs on research
Essay

Hope for a cure hangs on research

July 17, 2025

Amid drastic proposed cuts to biomedical research, rare disease families like Hailey Adkisson鈥檚 fight for survival and hope. Without funding, science can鈥檛 鈥渃atch up鈥 to help the patients who need it most.

Before we鈥檝e lost what we can鈥檛 rebuild: Hope for prion disease
Feature

Before we鈥檝e lost what we can鈥檛 rebuild: Hope for prion disease

July 15, 2025

Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, a husband-and-wife team racing to cure prion disease, helped develop ION717, an antisense oligonucleotide treatment now in clinical trials. Their mission is personal 鈥 and just getting started.

ASBMB members recognized as Allen investigators
Member News

ASBMB members recognized as Allen investigators

July 14, 2025

Ileana Cristea, Sarah Cohen, Itay Budin and Christopher Obara are among 14 researchers selected as Allen Distinguished Investigators by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.