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Discovery zone
Biochemistry's Gloria Culver has been in a zone since graduate school
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Like every scientist,
Gloria Culver goes to her lab, hoping to discover something new. More
days than not, she goes home with the thought that while they may be making
progress, that a groundbreaking discovery remains elusive.
"Finding something
truly novel is really hard," said the assistant professor of biochemistry.
"But making that discovery is always your goal.
"Discoveries
are what motivates me."
Currently Culver,
who joined the department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology
in the fall of 1999, is researching the mechanisms of ribosome assembly.
Ribosomes catalyze all cellular protein synthesis and thus are involved
in the final stages of gene expression. The ribosome is a macromolecular
complex containing three ribonucleic acid molecules and more than 70 proteins.
Culver and her research
group investigate the process by which all of these components specifically
associate with each other to form a functional unit.
And the results so
far have been so promising that she has received funding from the National
Institute of Health (NIH) and the American Cancer Society.
Culver says it's
a good thing the results have been so encouraging.
"As a scientist,
you have to learn to live off of good results for a long time," she
said. "Those results need to carry you through many failed attempts
and lots of repetition. Good results are sometimes few and far between.
"I have been
very lucky so far."
During her graduate
work at the University of Rochester and as a postdoctoral fellow at the
University of California, Santa Cruz, Culver said she was involved with
"good projects, addressing interesting questions with very good mentors."
During her post-doc
work, she became involved with ribosome structure and discovered a new
function for the ribsomal protein S15.
When she came to
Iowa State she moved her research onto ribosome assembly. But she is still
looking at ribosomal protein S15, work that is funded by the American
Cancer Society grant.
"We know S15
does three things in the cell," she said. "We don't know how
it does these things or how these functions really influence cell physiology."
Culver says that
the direct correlation between the rates of cell growth and ribosome biogenesis
indicates that an accurately assembled and functional ribosome is one
of the most important cellular organelles.
"Ribosome assembly
is like a jigsaw puzzle," Culver said. "The experiments we do
revolve around trying to put this jigsaw puzzle together. Putting the
pieces together in the right amounts, in the right order and at the right
time can be a challenge for us although cells have worked this out long
ago.
"Ribosomes are
amazingly complex ribnucleopretein machines," she continued, "capable
of interacting with a multitude of substrates and factors and accurately
converting genotype to phenotype."
If Culver and her
group are able to better understand ribosome biogenesis, she says development
of new antibiotics is possible. Or maybe cell growth could be regulated,
which could eventually assist in the development of cancer treatments.
These are likely the types of possibilities that fundamentally interest
the NIH.
"If we can
find what order of events occur in ribosome assembly, then maybe we can
understand how the process is regulated in cells," she said.
Whatever it is her
group discovers, Culver will more than likely be in the lab along with
the rest of her team.
"I like to do
experiments," she said. "I'm not trained to write grants and
I'm still learning how to teach. I've been trained to be at the bench."
Around LAS
April 23-29, 2001
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