Biochemist Marcos E. Ortega, a native of El Paso, Texas, studied how viruses replicate at the University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center, where he earned a doctorate in biochemistry. Following postdoctoral fellowships at USC and Harvey Mudd College, he landed a teaching position in 2013 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

This fall semester, he joins Cal State Fullerton as an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Ortega also holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Grinnell College in Iowa.

"I chose to pursue a career in academia as I truly love the combination of teaching and research," said Ortega, who also speaks Spanish. "I wanted to pursue a path that allowed me to impact the community and students in a very personal way through teaching, mentoring, outreach and service work."

I was inspired to pursue biochemistry and education by two things: the passing of my grandfather from diabetes when I was a teen and the teaching career of my mother. When I chose to pursue chemistry in college, it was biochemistry and the molecular origins of disease that piqued my interest the most. I sought answers in biochemistry about diabetes, which helped me to deal with the loss of my grandfather. It was truly a case where knowledge was power, and I utilize these lessons to this day in my classes. I was also inspired by the patience and significant impact that my mom had on students as a first-grade teacher. I want to have that same type of impact on others and a career in academics married my desire to impact students with the molecular understanding and prevention of disease and infection.

My research interests lie in trying to understand viral infection and viral replication using biochemical techniques and studies. I seek to understand how biophysical and biochemical principles guide the spontaneous assembly of a mature virus in a host cell. At the core, I want to investigate how viruses replicate and assemble and thus cause infection by studying the relation between protein structure and function.

I hope students learn that biochemistry is important to all people and impacts our lives on a daily basis. I want students to find a personal connection to biochemistry that hopefully motivates them to learn more. I also want students to find their place in the world and realize the importance of education. I know all students will not pursue biochemistry or biophysics, but through my teaching, I want students to know that anything is possible with a strong work ethic and an education.

I would like people to know that the answers to many of the difficult questions in todays world may be right in front of us. Whether its treatments for cancer, feeding the hungry, environmental issues or sustainable energy, the foundations of cellular function and the chemistry that drives it may begin to illuminate some answers that will help us prosper and advance as a society.

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Biochemist Studies How Viruses Replicate, Cause Infection - CSUF News

Michigan State Universitys Robert Last studies tomatoes. Specifically, he researches their hair, or trichomes.

For this study, he focused on a single type of molecule in trichomes acylsugars. The secrets Last and a team of MSU scientists found from studying these specialized metabolites open an evolutionary window for the emerging field of plant defense metabolism, insights that could lead to engineering advances for better pest resistance and human medicine.

There are an estimated 300,000 species of plants in the world, producing roughly more than a million metabolites. Plants use these molecules to grow, communicate with each other or to defend themselves against pests and disease. Humans benefit from many of these products for food, medicines and industrial uses. Thousands of core metabolites are found in every plant, but hundreds of thousands are more specialized and found only in specific groups of plants.

Acylsugars are an example of a group of specialized metabolites found only in the Solanaceae family, which includes tomato and petunia plants. These specialized metabolites have a wide variety of structures and are made by different enzymes working together to carry out a series of biochemical reactions.

We sought to understand how this novel pathway originated and diversified across 100 million years of plant evolution, said Last, MSU Barnett Rosenberg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Plant Biology and the studys senior author. This is our crystal ball, our view into evolution.

The crystal ball revealed that many of the enzymes that make acylsugars are promiscuous, meaning that they could use a variety of molecules as starting points for their chemical reactions. This could be the key as to how the plants make a variety of acylsugars.

The scientists also discovered that many of the enzymes that make acylsugars are encoded by genes that were originally copies of other genes and that have subsequently evolved new roles.

Deciphering these codes are important because tomatoes acylsugars are natural pesticides. Engineering plants to produce acylsugars could reduce pesticide use in crop production. Additionally, some of these mechanisms could help make chemicals that have pharmaceutical value, including ones that treat cancer and heart conditions.

Plants are master chemists, and were only just beginning to understand the metabolic pathways that they use to produce these amazing compounds, said Last, whos also an MSU AgBioResearch scientist. By understanding how the pathways evolved to produce these enzymes could lead to innovative ways to make valuable compounds on a large scale.

The MSU team of scientists contributing to this research included Gaurav Moghe, Bryan Leong, Steven Hurney and Daniel Jones. The paper is published in the current issue of the journal eLife.

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Tomatoes' 'Crystal Ball' Reveals Evolutionary Secrets - Laboratory Equipment

by Erin Facer | Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017, 11:54 AM

Carlos Lopez (Vanderbilt University)

Carlos F. Lopez, assistant professor of biochemistry and biomedical informatics, has been appointed as Vanderbilt Universitys liaison to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energys largest science and energy laboratory conducting research in energy and security. Lopez will continue the many collaborations that Greg Walker, associate professor of mechanical engineering, initiated during his term in this role.

Carlos expertise at the interface of physical, biological and computer sciences is precisely what is needed to help Vanderbilt University develop closer scientific collaborations with Oak Ridge National Lab, Vice Provost for Research Padma Raghavan said. I am grateful to him for stepping into this role, and I look forward to working with him to further develop this important partnership.

Carlos is an energetic and interactive investigator who already has productive collaborations with Oak Ridge scientists. He is very well suited for this new role, added Larry Marnett, dean of basic sciences at the School of Medicine.

As the Vanderbilt liaison to ORNL, Lopez will work closely with Vanderbilt faculty, the Office of the Provost, university deans and Vanderbilt University Medical Center leadership to advance key research themes that align with both Vanderbilt and ORNL priorities.

I would like to be instrumental in bringing together researchers from both institutions to develop robust collaborations to accelerate discovery, Lopez said.

Lopez received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied theoretical biophysics, and followed this with a postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School. He moved to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in late 2012 as an assistant professor of cancer biology. His work develops and applies novel computational modeling tools and leverages strong experimental collaborations to describe intracellular biochemical signaling networks to further our understanding of cellular decision-making processes.

Media Inquiries: Erin Facer, erin.facer@vanderbilt.edu

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Lopez named Vanderbilt's liaison to Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Vanderbilt University News