Scientists Led by Ohio Wesleyan Graduate Paul Schimmel Uncover ‘Vast New Area of Biology’
Glutaminyl-tRNA Synthetase 1QRS by Yikrazuul (Wikimedia Commons)
Paul Schimmel, Ph.D.
International scientific research led by Ohio Wesleyan University graduate Paul Schimmel, Ph.D., has uncovered “almost 250 protein splice variants of an essential, evolutionarily conserved family of human genes,” according to findings published in the latest edition of Science, the world’s leading journal of original scientific research.
“The main point is that a vast new area of biology, previously missed, has been uncovered,” said Schimmel, Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, in an interview with Anna Azvolinsky of The Scientist.
Co-author of the new research, Mingjie Zhang, Ph.D., Kerry Holdings Professor of Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, added: “This breakthrough finding not only uncovers a vast area of new biology, but also provides opportunities to develop protein-based drugs for various human diseases associated with malfunctions of these newly discovered proteins.”
At Ohio Wesleyan, Schimmel majored in pre-medicine. The university’s state-of-the-art Schimmel/Conrades Science Center is named, in part, in his honor.
After graduating from OWU in 1962, Schimmel went on to earn his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Read more about the research led by Schimmel, “Added Layers of Proteome Complexity,” in The Scientist.
Congratulations, Dr. Schimmel!