Krasnow takes over as chair of biochemistry department
Mark Krasnow
BY MITZI BAKER
The connection between the basic research of a biochemistry department and patient-care activities may not be immediately obvious. One of Mark Krasnow's goals as the new biochemistry chair is to show the rest of the medical school how his group's research can be useful to patients as well as to help biochemists apply their tools to clinical questions.
Krasnow, MD, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, succeeded Suzanne Pfeffer, PhD, as chair in September after six years as associate chair. He heads a group with diverse interests. The 18 faculty members study topics ranging from molecular behavior to new ways of diagnosing cancer.
All the biochemistry researchers share a common goal: understanding fundamental biological questions at the molecular level. Their quest doesn't end there, though. Many are courting collaborations with clinicians to disseminate their basic biochemical knowledge.
"There is already great cross-fertilization within our department," said Krasnow, referring to its long-standing commitment to having a cooperative and supportive environment. There may be walls between laboratories on the fourth floor of the Beckman Center, but in principle, it's all open space, evidenced by the complete sharing of laboratory areas and major equipment. The physical and social barriers are broken down, he said, noting the extent of cross-lab interactions among the researchers.
This communal atmosphere has prevailed in the department since its founding in 1959 with the recruitment of Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg, MD, now the Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus, to head the department. "Since the beginning, there has been an intermixing of lab groups," said Krasnow. "One challenge now is to move that cross-fertilization to the outside; to move beyond the traditional boundaries into unsolved biological and biochemical mysteries including clinical questions."
Krasnow pointed to instances of faculty members paving the way for collaboration. For one, associate professor Pehr Harbury, PhD, is devising ways to use DNA molecules as blueprints for the synthesis of small chemical compounds that may be useful in drug design. His method could allow research clinicians to screen rapidly for potentially effective drugs among trillions of new compounds.
And professor Patrick Brown, MD, PhD, is advocating a drop-in "biochemistry bar" where instead of beers, patrons are served insight into their vexing biochemical problems by students and faculty in the department, much like a similar service the Department of Statistics offers. "It's easiest to establish research connections by offering to help someone solve their research problem," Krasnow said. "And by bringing a problem to the 'biochemistry bar' they teach us an unsolved mystery."
Solving mysteries by dissolving boundaries has long been an interest of Krasnow's. While director of the medical school's Medical Scientist Training Program from 1996 until 2002, he launched the lecture series "Unsolved mysteries in medical research," which aims to foster multidisciplinary research projects.
Now is a particularly opportune time to promote collaborations with biochemists. The field is at an exciting crossroads, the "end of the beginning," Krasnow said, segueing from the classical biochemical studies—looking at the structure of individual molecules—to the cutting-edge technology of modern medicine, seeing how the molecules function together as a system. "Modern biochemistry is the starting point for many types of studies," he said. "We now have the prospect of a much deeper understanding of 'normal.'"
Pinning down what is normal is a theme in Krasnow's own story. He came to the medical school in 1985 as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of David Hogness, PhD, where he explored the biochemical basis of development. Three years later he joined the faculty. The focus of Krasnow's current research is the "molecular logic" as he calls it, of how the trachea develops in a fruit fly and how the lung forms in mouse. As esoteric as the Drosophila trachea may seem at first glance, his work has implications for nearly every organ in the body, as most organs are a variation of branched networks of tubes, like the trachea is.
"If we understand how tubes sometimes are the wrong size or the wrong shape or have the wrong connections, we may figure out how to restore the normal structure," he said. "Our research is a nice example of how understanding at the molecular level can give insight into pulmonary and vascular disease and launch collaborations with clinical departments."