Zullo Joins CSR

Dr. Steve Zullo, who recently returned to NIH from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is scientific review administrator for the gene and drug delivery systems study section of the new bioengineering sciences and technologies integrated review group at the Center for Scientific Review. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale School of Medicine, he joined the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics at NIMH, where he created the first mammalian (CHO) cell line with a functional mitochondrial DNA-encoded gene stably integrated in the nuclear genome. Zullo assembled a team that first demonstrated protease inhibitors designed to block the HIV protease could also block the mitochondrial processing protease. This mechanism might contribute to the lipodystrophy syndromes that first surfaced when PI's were combined with nucleoside analogues in highly active antiretroviral therapy.

Four Appointed to NIGMS Council

Four new members were recently appointed to the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council. They are:

Dr. Stanley Fields, professor of genome sciences and of medicine at the University of Washington, where he also serves as an adjunct professor of microbiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His research interests include developing analytical strategies for understanding protein function using Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Dr. Richard I. Morimoto, dean of the graduate school, associate provost for graduate education and professor in the department of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology at Northwestern University. His research interests include heat shock gene transcription, stress responses and the biology of misfolded proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans and mammalian cells.

Dr. Virginia A. Zakian, Harry C. Wiess professor in the life sciences in the department of molecular biology at Princeton University. Zakian studies the structure and replication of eukaryotic chromosomes mainly using S. cerevisiae as a model organism.

Dr. Gregory R. Reyes, who recently retired as vice president of biological research, infectious diseases, oncology and gene therapy at Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, N.J. His research interests there focused on the development of protease inhibitors for chronic hepatitis C and of CCR5 antagonists for HIV infection.

NIGMS director Dr. Jeremy Berg (c) welcomes new council members (from l) Dr. Stanley Fields, Dr. Richard I. Morimoto, Dr. Virginia A. Zakian and Dr. Gregory R. Reyes.