2010 - California State University, Long Beach Department of ...

ies related to the effect of secondhand smoke
exposure on oxidative modification of apoE.
We kicked off the New Year on an excellent
note with four manuscripts accepted for
publication: one in biochemistry, where Arti
Patel, a graduate student in biochemistry, was
the first and PK was the second author, on fluorescence
spectroscopic investigations of the
lipid-binding domain of apoE. A second paper
entitled “A new HDL mimetic peptide that
stimulates cellular cholesterol efflux with high
efficiency greatly reduces atherosclerosis in
mice” was published in the Journal of Lipid
Research. Arti and I were co-authors, contributing
a biophysical analysis of the peptide
to this multi-laboratory collaborative project.
The third paper, an invited review article on
helix bundle proteins, appeared in Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology, and the fourth
publication, with one of my former collabora-
Front row from left: Panupon Khumsupan, Arti Patel, Dr.
Vasanthy Narayanaswami, Gunsharan Bains. Back row:
Ricardo Ramirez, Muhamman Rafay and Darin Khumsupan.
tors, which appeared in Brain Research, was
on the protection offered by apoE against specific
types of neurotoxicity.
Then started all the travel to regional and
national/international conferences. Our lab was
well represented at the CSUPERB Symposium in
Santa Clara in January, where Arti was one of
the finalists for the Don Eden graduate student
research award for excellence in biophysical
research. Arti and PK received travel awards
from CSUPERB to present their findings at the
Biophysical Society meeting in San Francisco
in February. Arti was also one of two students
from California to receive a travel award from
the Biophysical Society. PK and Ricardo Ramirez,
an undergraduate student in biology/physiology,
gave a talk on flavonoid-bearing nano vehicles
at the ACS Undergraduate Conference at
Chapman University and at the ASBMB meeting
in Anaheim. For my part, I attended the Biophysical
Society, ASBMB and the American
Continued on pg. 12, Reports from Faculty
Photo by Victoria Sanchez
Bob Soukup Retires
Bob Soukup retired last December after 34½ years as the instrument and computer
technician for the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department.
Soukup was born in Long Beach
and graduated from Poly High School. He
dabbled with electronics in high school and
worked in a TV store. Soukup served in the
U.S. Navy from 1966-70 and received training
at the Navy school in Vallejo in computer
hardware (which used vacuum tubes in those
days) and in encryption and de-encryption,
as well as received training in electronics at
the Navy school on Treasure Island in the
San Francisco Bay. He served off the coast of
Vietnam and in the Mekong Delta on ships
that fired shells in support of the infantry.
After leaving the Navy, Soukup continued
to work at the TV store while enrolling in
the program leading to a B.S. degree in
industrial technology (now industrial engineering)
at CSULB. He graduated cum laude
in 1974 and continued to work in TV electronics.
He also took courses related to biomedical engineering at the City of Hope and
at Cerritos College, which gave him a familiarity with scientific instruments. In 1976, the
CSULB Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry hired Soukup to maintain the Perkin-
Elmer R12 60 MHz NMR.
According to Soukup, there was not enough work with the NMR to keep him occupied
full time, so he “found other things to do.” As several generations of faculty and
students know well, this meant that Soukup was the person to go to when any piece of
equipment stopped working. Whether it involved mechanical devices, vacuum pumps,
balances, refrigeration units or scientific instruments with sophisticated electronics,
Soukup was almost always able to either fix the problem or do the required trouble -
shooting so that the right replacement part could be ordered. Armed with a voltmeter
and a soldering gun, Soukup was often able to identify and replace a faulty component
of a circuit board that would have cost thousands of dollars to replace.
As the department entered the computer age in the mid-1980s, Soukup became the
department’s computer technician as well. He designed and maintained the department’s
Web page and server, kept all the department computers smoothly connected to the network
and served as the all-purpose computer doctor.
Soukup met his wife Elizabeth when she was a microbiology major at CSULB in the
1980s. His daughter, Jennifer, is now 21. The Soukup family spends time at their home in
Long Beach and at a second house in Idyllwild.
In retirement, Soukup plans to do deferred maintenance on both houses and to
spend time researching his family genealogy and visiting “long-gone relatives” in other
parts of the country. He also plans on doing some woodworking, learning the art of inlay
and marquetry at which his father was an expert. In a recent e-mail, Soukup said,
“Retirement is great! I’m actually busy from dawn to dusk, more so than when I was
working, and finding more things to do all the time.”
Photo by David J. Nelson
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