Workman Named Penn State's First Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

6-24-97
University Park, Pa. -- Jerry L. Workman, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has been appointed as an associate investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private supporter of biomedical research and education in the United States. He is one of 70 scientists nationwide selected this year and the first Penn State faculty member to receive the award.

Workman says he will use the award to further his laboratory's studies into the mechanisms of gene regulation. "In particular, these funds will help to advance our studies into the identification and characterization of protein complexes that disrupt and/or modify the structures of chromosomes and turn on gene expression," Workman says.

Workman's research concerns a central process in gene regulation--how energy-driven teams of molecules function as chromosome-remodeling machines that unlock the cell's genetic codes. A chromosome, the gene-containing structure in a cell's nucleus, is a rope-like molecule of DNA tangled up with proteins. Genes are sections of the DNA that contain a cell's genetic codes.

"Our studies analyze chromosome-modifying protein complexes from human cells and from yeast cells where a powerful genetic system can be exploited to complement biochemistry," Workman explains. "These studies should render new insights into the development of cancers and other human diseases that result from aberrant gene expression."

As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute associate investigator employed by the Howard Hughes Institute, Workman will continue to hold a faculty appointment at Penn State and will conduct his research in a Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratory located on the University Park Campus. "This award is intended to benefit Penn State in addition to honoring Jerry Workman," says Robert Schlegel, professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. "He will continue to teach and fulfill other academic responsibilities like any other faculty member, but he will have more time and resources to devote to his research program, which means his productivity will increase as a result of the additional Howard Hughes Medical Institute support."

According to institute, Hughes investigators conduct biomedical research in cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, and structural biology and have made significant discoveries related to obesity, AIDS, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and other medical problems. The institute employs approximately 330 investigators based at 72 institutions nationwide.

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Contacts: Jerry L. Workman: phone 814-863-8256, e-mail jlw10@psu.edu
Barbara K. Kennedy: phone 814-863-4682, e-mail science@psu.edu