Rawlings affirms dedication to further chemistry and chemical biology at CU

Professor Wayne Hendrickson of Columbia University Robert Barker/University Photography

By David Brand

Cornell's newest department, chemistry and chemical biology, once known merely as "chemistry," celebrated its name change Sept. 12 with a day of lectures on the forefront of research in, appropriately, chemical biology. It is the first name change for the department since it was separated from physics in 1880.

The day began with a welcome from President Hunter Rawlings and ended with an after-dinner speech embodying wit and wisdom from President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes.

In between, three eminent researchers discussed their research in a field that will increasingly occupy the time of the department's labs, and that, chair Paul Houston said, indicates the increasing importance of the interface between chemistry and biology. It is a field in which, Rawlings observed, "we intend to grow and intend to invest and remain at the forefront." Indeed, he said, that investment will include hiring new faculty from outside "who will invigorate the science."

The symposium was led off by Wayne Hendrickson of Columbia University's department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, who discussed the molecular mechanisms used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in cell entry and immune invasion. Hendrickson explained that at the heart of HIV's devastation is its subversion of the way in which the immune system cell, the T-helper, is able to recognize antigens. Without this recognition ability, the cell is unable to destroy invaders.

An important factor in the T-cell recognition process, said Hendrickson, is a molecule called CD4 (for cluster determinant number 4). However, he said, HIV has evolved in such a way that it takes over the CD4 function "so that CD4, which is a receptor in the immune system response, becomes a receptor for the virus." The first action of the virus is to bind to the CD4 molecule to gain entry to the immune system.

"This virus has the need to avoid all of the immune system machinery, and it does it in a way that is beyond the characteristics of other viruses we have seen before," Hendrickson said. When HIV becomes part of the cell, it mutates very quickly. "Consequently there are many different strains of the virus, and those will not be recognized by the immune response developed against the previous strain. As a consequence, the virus is able to avoid or evade the whole immune discovery system of the body."

The problems facing the chemical biologist, said Hendrickson, are in molecular recognition and involve understanding how molecules interact with each other. The goal, he said, is to discover the detailed chemical bases at work in subverting the body's ability to provide protection against the HIV invader.

Ultimately, he said, the hope is to develop drugs that might block the invasion process and of producing appropriate vaccines to protect the immune response.

Hendrickson was followed by Joanne Stubbe of the department of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who discussed "The Importance of Transient Protein-Protein Interactions in Metabolism," and by Stuart Schreiber of the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, who spoke on "Discovering and Using Small Molecules for Chemical Genetic Research."

The day ended with a reception and dinner, following which Rhodes told the guests, "In an age where knowledge is the new economic currency and science is the driving force of knowledge itself, the universities must prosper if the nation itself is to prosper."

Knowledge, he said, is the basis of every venture there is. "But knowledge, unlike other natural resources, is also catalytic: It expands even as it is consumed. It is refined even as it is challenged and tested. It comes only, however, to the prepared mind. It is not a free good. And it is only universities that can continue to create and to provide and to translate knowledge in a meaningful way."