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facultY PortraIt
M aria Spies
Professor Spies accepting the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from Biophysical Society
President Henry A. Lester. Image used with permission from the Biochemical Society.
10 . mcb
With a new award, Professor
spies is recognized both for her
accomplishments to date as well
as exceptional promise of future
ground-breaking discoveries.
This year, the Biophysical Society granted Assistant Professor of
Biochemistry and Biophysics Maria Spies the Margaret Oakley
Dayhoff Award, a prestigious recognition given annually to
one or two prominent female scientists beginning careers in
biophysical research.
Now in its fourth year, Professor Spies’ research team employs
traditional and single-molecule biochemistry to discern the
role the molecular motors known as DNA helicases play in
identifying and repairing DNA damage. These are important
players in maintaining the integrity of our genetic blueprint,
which is continuously assaulted by UV radiation, toxic
chemicals, and reactive oxygen species.
“DNA helicases act as critical components in many molecular
machineries orchestrating DNA repair in the cell,” Spies said.
“Multiple diseases bearing hallmarks of cancer and aging are
associated with malfunctions in these enzymes.”
The Biophysical Society is not the only organization to have
honored Professor Spies in the past year.
In September, 2009, Professor Spies began her six-year appointment
as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Early
Career Scientist. The award aims to provide generous funding
to the most promising early career scientists in the country.
According to HHMI, “The new program is aimed at researchers
who have run their own labs for two to six years and are now at
a critical point in establishing their own vibrant, independent
research programs.”
HHMI President Thomas R. Cech says, “We decided to focus on
scientists who have led their own laboratories for several years
because many of these scientists are at a high point of their
creativity just as they see their start-up funds and early-career
awards ending... It is this period of career vulnerability that the
HHMI Early Career Scientist Program aims to bridge.”
Professor Spies says this funding will give her research not only
stability during this period of economic uncertainty, but the
ability to try more cutting-edge, potentially high-impact studies
that might be difficult to get funded by more traditional agencies.
Howard Hughes, she says, intended the award for basic
biomedical research, and it is in that spirit that she intends to
continue.
Most research in her lab is currently funded by the HHMI and
the American Cancer Society. She describes the HHMI Early
Career Scientist Award as “a great honor.” •
About the undergrads working alongside post-docs and graduate
students in her lab, Spies says, “these are highly motivated
students driven to scientific discovery. they eagerly take on
research projects that last two or three years and expose
them to all stages of scientific discovery from identifying a
question and planning the experiments to writing a paper.”