2007 in Review
SCSB continues to play a leading role in facilitating the basic research expertise required for translational efforts at UTMB. These efforts include, but have not been limited to: target identification, quantitative characterization of function, rational therapeutic development, and structural validation. This year SCSB members have published a number of high impact papers in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Structure. Several of our members have also been recognized. Jose Barral, one of our new assistant professors, received a prestigious Pew Scholarship, and Werner Braun was named as an AAAS Fellow in 2007, joining the ranks of Wayne Bolen, Wlodek Bujalowski, Robert Fox, Dave Gorenstein, James Lee, and Brad Thompson. This increases the number of Core SCSB AAAS Fellows to seven (7) out of just sixteen (16) AAAS Fellows in all of UTMB. The addition of three new assistant professors; Kay Choi, Junji Iwahara, and Marc Morais have also been a tremendous boost to the Center in 2007.
In addition to being a period of significant research growth and recognition, 2007 has also been a noteworthy year for infrastructure development in SCSB. Installation of a cryo-probe for the 800MHz NMR, completion of the new Cryo-EM Center, and the acquisition of new crystallization and solution handling robotics for the X-ray Center and Biophysical Core, have pushed UTMB to the cutting edge of structural biology and molecular biophysics research world wide. The growth in both faculty and infrastructure seen in 2007 portend a year of research accomplishment for 2008.