The five Stanford professors who were elected this year to the American Association for the Advancement of Science talk about the research that caught the attention of their peers.
Steven Artandi, assistant professor of medicine (hematology):
Telomeres are the caps that protect the ends of our chromosomes. Telomerase is a special enzyme that adds DNA sequences to telomeres to keep them sufficiently long and stable. Telomerase is expressed in our stem cells and in the vast majority of human cancers. My work has helped to illuminate how telomere shortening during aging can cause chromosomes to become unstable, causing cancer in our epithelial tissues. We have also shown that telomerase not only lengthens telomeres, but possesses a second activity allowing it to directly activate tissue stem cells. This activity is important in regulating stem cells and in supporting cancer development.
Laura D. Attardi, assistant professor of radiation oncology and of genetics:
Cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cellular proliferation resulting in part from mutations in genes, called tumor suppressor genes, which normally act as brakes on cell division. One such tumor suppressor gene, p53, is mutated in more than half of all human cancers. Our research is aimed at understanding how p53 inhibits tumor development, using the mouse, which allows cancer studies in an organism closely related to humans. By determining the molecular basis for p53 action in suppressing cancer, our studies will provide significant insight into the development and treatment of human cancers of a wide variety of types.
Christopher Chidsey, PhD ’84, associate professor of chemistry and of photon science at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center:
My co-workers and I have learned how to control the flow of electricity through molecules and to measure how fast the electricity flows. Knowing how fast electricity flows through molecules and how to regulate it provides a basis for the design of inexpensive ways to efficiently harvest electrical energy from or store energy in chemical systems with minimal environmental impact. Our current interest is in how best to convert chemical energy to electrical energy in fuel cells, and to perform demanding chemical transformations at minimal energy cost by using electricity.
Karen Cook, professor of sociology, and, by courtesy, of education, and inaugural director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences:
In a world in which social networks are one of the main forms of interaction, knowing whom to trust becomes very important to us. How do we know if someone we interact with on the Internet or in our community is trustworthy? I study these issues, among others, in my research in computer-mediated interactions and in social life more generally.
Friedrich B. Prinz, professor of engineering and chair of the department of mechanical engineering:
My lab has been working on fuel cells that have unique features—ultra-thin membranes that are only one-hundredth atomic layers thin. These prove to be interesting and attractive for efficiency in power conversion in fuel cells.
