麻豆传媒色情片

Member News

Event honors Gary Felsenfeld

Thoru Pederson Bruce Alberts
By Thoru Pederson and Bruce Alberts
Feb. 12, 2024

A celebration honoring Gary Felsenfeld, a pioneer in the study of nucleic acid structure and chromatin, brought together more than 25 of his former National Institutes of Health lab members recently to offer reminiscences. Inspired by our decades-long admiration of Felsenfeld, the authors organized this event in Washington, D.C.

Group photo of event celebrating Gary Felsenfeld.
Daniel Felsenfeld
Longtime NIH researcher Gary Felsenfeld, center, is surrounded by former lab members and admirers during a celebration in January at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.

Felsenfeld’s career spanned three eras of biophysical chemistry and molecular biology.  He was the first, with David Davies and Alex Rich, to demonstrate the existence of three-stranded RNA and (independently with Stuart Orkin) identified GATA1, an early discovery of an erythroid gene regulatory factor.   In the 1970s, he made a major discovery on the structure of chromatin and later defined key regulatory elements of gene expression, including “insulator” elements and the transcription factor CTCF. 

A member of the 麻豆传媒色情片 and 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology for more than 60 years who served on the Journal of Biological Chemistry editorial board in the 1960s, Felsenfeld has received many honors in his career but this was a very personal one, as we intended and as he described it afterwards. 

During the evening, Felsenfeld shared memories of some of his mentors, including protein scientist John Edsall at Harvard, where Felsenfeld was an undergraduate, and two-time Nobel Prize winner, biochemist and peace activist Linus Pauling at the California Institute of Technology, where Felsenfeld earned his Ph.D. — an enriching historical connection for most of the guests who knew these scientists by name only. 

Felsenfeld, soon to be 95, spent almost his entire career at the National Institutes of Health, where he served as the 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology Section chief in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and is now an NIH distinguished investigator and scientist emeritus.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition monthly and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Thoru Pederson
Thoru Pederson

Thoru Pederson is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biotechnology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

Bruce Alberts
Bruce Alberts

Bruce Alberts is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics, University of California San Francisco.

Related articles

In memoriam: Thomas Devlin
Elisabeth Adkins Marnik
In memoriam: Maxine Singer
Marissa Locke Rottinghaus

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in People

People highlights or most popular articles

Honors for Bhatt, Lim and Nuñez
Member News

Honors for Bhatt, Lim and Nuñez

Sept. 16, 2024

Ami Bhatt receives the American Society of Hematology's William Dameshek Prize. The Pew Charitable Trusts selects Ci Ji Lim and James Nuñez as 2024 Pew scholars.

In memoriam: Robert Warren Newburgh
In Memoriam

In memoriam: Robert Warren Newburgh

Sept. 16, 2024

He was a distinguished developmental and cell biologist and a member of the ASBMB since 1957.

'Don鈥檛 be afraid to take a different path'
Profile

'Don鈥檛 be afraid to take a different path'

Sept. 11, 2024

In 2016, MOSAIC scholar Rebecca Ann Faulkner paused her career for four years to focus on her family, a decision she believes made her a more effective and empathetic scientist.

Honors for Baserga, Matunis and Tate
Member News

Honors for Baserga, Matunis and Tate

Sept. 9, 2024

Awards, promotions, milestones and more. Find out what's going on in the lives of ASBMB members.

In memoriam: William Catterall
In Memoriam

In memoriam: William Catterall

Sept. 9, 2024

Known as the 鈥渇ather of ion channels,鈥 he was a neuroscientist and pharmacologist at the University of Washington and an ASBMB member for more than 45 years.

Announcing the winners of the 麻豆传媒色情片 Motifs bioart competition
Contest

Announcing the winners of the 麻豆传媒色情片 Motifs bioart competition

Sept. 3, 2024

The 12 winning works of art to be featured in the 2025 ASBMB calendar were selected from 37 entries received from scientists in both academia and industry at all career stages with submissions coming from as far away as Pakistan and Brazil.