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Biologist Pamela Green named AAAS Fellow
4:17 p.m., Nov. 29, 2006--Pamela J. Green, the Crawford H. Greenewalt Endowed Chair in Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Delaware, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest scientific society. Green, who holds faculty appointments in both UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the College of Marine and Earth Studies and whose laboratory is at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, is one of 449 AAAS members who have been elected to the honor by their peers this year because of “their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.” The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. The new fellows will be presented with an official certificate and rosette pin at the Fellows Forum on Feb. 17, during the AAAS annual meeting in San Francisco. Green was elected to the AAAS section on biological sciences for her “pioneering work on post-transcriptional mechanisms that regulate the expression of genes in higher plants, especially the role of messenger RNA [ribonucleic acid] in this process.” “I am surprised and delighted to receive this honor,” Green said. “It's very gratifying to have your work recognized by your peers. It also is important to acknowledge that the work I am being recognized for was done with many talented students, postdocs and research associates at the University of Delaware and Michigan State University. ” Messenger RNA carries the genetic code from the DNA in a cell's nucleus out to the cytoplasm--the jelly-like material surrounding the nucleus--where the code gets translated into proteins. The messenger RNA actually serves as the template from which the proteins are synthesized, ultimately determining how a particular cell will look and function. While many scientists are studying the initial synthesis of messenger RNA in the cell's nucleus, much of Green's research focuses on how genes are regulated after this first step. In particular, she wants to know how messenger RNA gets degraded. Finding the answer is important, she said, because the messenger RNA controls how much protein a gene produces. The amount of messenger RNA, which is affected both by its synthesis and degradation, can then be used to measure how active a gene is. Abnormal amounts can point to certain problems, such as diseases. “I like to compare messenger RNA to groceries,” Green said. “Some groceries get eaten quickly, and some get eaten slowly, and this often depends on the conditions. For example, if you buy ice cream in the summer when it's hot, it's likely to be eaten quickly. Messenger RNA is like this. It gets eaten up at different rates.” In related research, Green and her colleagues are studying “small RNAs,” which have only short stretches of sequence on the order of 20 to 25 nucleotides. These small RNAs also play an important role in regulating genes in both plants and animals. The most abundant type, called microRNAs, often cause messenger RNA to degrade, according to Green, and deficiencies in microRNA production can have a profound effect on development. The focus of Green's research has been the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, known also as mouse-ear cress or thale cress, a member of the mustard family. Scientists refer to it as a “model plant” because it has only a small amount of genetic material, and it is easy to work with in the laboratory. Last year, in collaboration with researchers at Solexa Inc. of Hayward, Calif., Green and Blake Meyers, UD associate professor of plant and soil sciences, and Cheng Lu, an associate scientist in Green's lab, pioneered the application of a technique called Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS) to small RNAs in Arabidopsis. In analyzing the results, the scientists and Shivakundan Tej, then a master's student in computer science in the Meyers group, discovered 10 times more small RNAs in Arabidopsis than previously had been identified, causing molecular scientists to rethink their ideas about genes and other chromosomal regions. This year, the Green and Meyers groups pioneered the use of a technology from 454 Life Sciences for high-throughput small RNA sequencing, an approach that is now being applied in many small-RNA labs in the United States and abroad. “Our research is very fundamental, so the approaches and the results often are of general significance to both plants and animals,” Green noted. From her lab at DBI, Green said she really enjoys the “cross-boundary” research that she is able to pursue at the University of Delaware. “It expands what we're able to study, as well as the students and collaborators who work with us,” she explained. In addition to her collaboration with the Meyers lab, Green and her team also work with UD colleagues in marine and Earth studies, biology, animal science, and plant and soil science. Currently, Green is advising two UD graduate students in marine biology, a rotation student from the chemistry-biology interface graduate program, a visiting graduate student from Germany, a number of postdoctoral fellows and research associates, and associate scientist Cheng Lu, noted earlier. “Our lab is full of talented people at all levels,” she said. Green's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Agriculture. She has presented seminars and lectures on her work throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In addition to her busy research and teaching schedule, Green currently chairs the board of trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences, which feature talks by leading-edge scientists at some 180 meetings a year, attracting more than 20,000 participants. She also serves on the Franklin Institute's Committee on Science and the Arts and is on the editorial advisory board for Trends in Plant Science. Among her other contributions to science and education over the past few years, Green has been the principal investigator for the Arabidopsis Functional Genomics Consortium and served on the board of directors of the International Society for Plant Molecular Biology. Green earned her bachelor's degree in biology with honors from Purdue University and her doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology at Rockefeller University from 1985 to 1988. Founded in 1848, AAAS includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, representing 10 million members. Its mission is to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs and science education. The association also publishes the journal Science, which is the largest peer-reviewed science journal in the world, with an estimated 1 million readers. Article by Tracey Bryant |
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