Four Yale biochemists were elected recently to the National Academy of Sciences, bringing the total number of University scientists who are academy members to 62. Three of the four new members are Yale alumni, and three of the four use molecular imaging techniques to reveal how key proteins transcribe genetic information, how genetic code is deciphered and how that deciphered code is translated into the proteins of human cells -- a field in which Yale is an internationally acknowledged leader.
The four are Donald M. Engelman, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry MB&B, and of biology; Peter B. Moore, professor of chemistry and of MB&B; Dieter G. Soll, professor of MB&B, biology and chemistry; and John C. Tully, professor of chemistry, physics and applied physics.
Professor Engelman '67 Ph.D. is working with cell membrane proteins to understand how the one-dimensional information found in gene sequences is converted through protein folding into three- dimensional molecules. He is using X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering, electron microscopy, optical spectroscopy and biochemical methods to determine how proteins fold. He joined the Yale faculty in 1970.
Professor Moore '61 B.S. studies the structure and function of RNA molecules and ribonucleoproteins. Messenger, ribosomal and transfer RNAs play a far more complex role in gene expression than had been imagined even a decade ago, he says. Using high-field nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray crystallography, he and his colleagues are determining the structure of RNAs with the goal of discovering their underlying biochemistry. He joined the Yale faculty in 1969.
Professor Soell's research focuses on genetic, molecular biological and biochemical studies of the function of transfer RNAs in various organisms. His studies in E. coli bacteria focus on key chemical interactions and the role of transfer RNA during the first step of heme biosynthesis. In plants, he is studying the regulation of the expression of proteins that bind a major plant hormone, and the light-regulated first step to chlorophyll biosynthesis. He has been a Yale faculty member since 1967.
Professor Tully '64 B.A. is striving for a theoretical understanding at the molecular level of dynamical processes such as energy transfer and chemical reactions in gas-phase, liquid-phase, condensed-phase, and biological environments. Earlier in his career, he helped devise the "Surface-Hopping" method for tracing out the multiple molecular pathways that can arise when electronic transitions accompany chemical reactions. More recently, he reformulated this method to include quantum mechanical phase coherence.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional acts signed by Abraham Lincoln. The academy advises the federal government.