Professor Natalie Ahn (left) and Professor Karolin Luger.
Pioneering biochemists听Natalie Ahn and Karolin Luger have been inducted into the听, an honor that recognizes听"distinguished and continuing achievements in original research." Membership in the prestigious organization is widely considered to be one of the highest honors that听a scientist can receive.
"It's really a wonderful recognition of our work听and a great honor that I share with all of my coworkers, past and present," said Luger, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and听the听Jennie Smoly Caruthers Endowed Chair of Biochemistry.
Luger and her colleagues study听how genetic material is stored in human cells听and how these organizational principles critically affect every aspect of cell life听in health and disease. Understanding and visualizing protein-DNA assemblies at atomic resolution will allow researchers听to better understand how the genome is decoded by the cell鈥檚 machinery.
In 2017, Luger鈥攚ho is also a (HHMI) Investigator鈥� on the genomic structure of microbes called Archaea, findings that hinted at the evolutionary origins of DNA folding that all multicellular organisms use.听The research built on Luger's cornerstone scientific achievement, which outlined the听three-dimensional structure of the nucleosome. That finding, now widely cited in textbooks,听was named the听鈥渂reakthrough of the year鈥� in 1997 by the journal Science.
Ahn joined the CU Boulder faculty in听1992 and served as an听HHMI Investigator from 1994鈥�2014.听She serves as President of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.听
鈥淭his is such a great honor," said Ahn, a Professor of Distinction in Chemistry and Biochemistry and Associate Director of the BioFrontiers Institute. "I owe many thanks to my past mentors, and to my wonderful colleagues, students and friends in our amazing CU Boulder community.鈥�
Ahn's research focuses on听enzymatic and cellular mechanisms underlying cell signal transduction.听She conducted pioneering work in the discovery of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade, including the identification of MAP kinase kinases which are important targets for anti-cancer therapies. She was also a pioneer in the use of functional proteomics and mass spectrometry for signal transduction research.
The 2018 class of National Academy of Sciences inductees includes听84 researchers from across the country as well as听21听foreign associates.听The new inductees bring the total number of听active members to 2,382 and the total number of foreign associates to 484.
