Peter Burgers: Biochemist studies cell processes fundamental to life

By Julia Evangelou Strait

Photo by: Robert Boston

Peter Burgers, PhD (center), shows Joseph Stodola (left) and Justin Sparks, both graduate research assistants in biochemistry and molecular biophysics, some samples in his lab. “Peter is known around the world for his expertise in the genetics and biochemistry of DNA replication and cellular responses to damaged DNA,” says Thomas E. Ellenberger, DVM, PhD, the Raymond H. Wittcoff Professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. “He is well-known for reconstituting impossibly difficult protein complexes and showing the field how things work at the molecular level.”

Growing up in Wassenaar, Netherlands, a small town near the North Sea, Peter Burgers, PhD, remembers a carefree childhood. The middle of seven children, Burgers and his siblings spent much time outside, including summers at the beach.

But a carefree childhood does not mean one without direction.

“My father was a teacher, and he valued education,” Burgers says. “He wanted all of us to go to university, which was unusual in those days.”

That parental influence clearly was felt as the family now includes a biochemist, an engineer, two medical doctors, two nurses and a geologist. Today, Burgers is the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Biological Chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is an expert in DNA replication and repair — fundamental cellular processes shared across organisms, from yeast to humans.

“Peter is known around the world for his expertise in the genetics and biochemistry of DNA replication and cellular responses to damaged DNA,” says Thomas E. Ellenberger, DVM, PhD, the Raymond H. Wittcoff Professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. “He is well-known for reconstituting impossibly difficult protein complexes and showing the field how things work at the molecular level.”

Indeed, Burgers recently was honored for his scientific contributions with an honorary doctorate in medicine from Umeå University in Sweden. During the ceremony, Bengt Jårvholm, MD, PhD, dean of the Umeå School of Medicine, praised Burgers’ work, his support for international collaborations, and his mentoring of faculty at Umeå University. The celebration included Burgers’ general lecture to the Umeå community. Afterward, festivities continued with a university-wide reception and banquet.

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Research scientists urge universities to improve undergraduate science teaching

On Jan. 12, a bleak commentary in Nature online suggested a funding bubble in the sciences is about to collapse with dire results for science students. “When the economic storm struck in 2008, the ride came to an abrupt end,” wrote Colin Macilwain, a contributing correspondent at Nature.


“As Western governments attempt to maintain investment in science as a route to innovation and industrial development, they are undermining support for students and the quality of their education,” Macilwain said.

“Students are not customers of a university; they are its very soul,” Macilwain wrote. “The idea that research will prosper while teaching and learning decay is a dangerous fallacy.”

Two days later, in the Jan. 14, 2011, issue of Science, Sarah C.R. Elgin, PhD, the Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and 12 colleagues took issue with Macilwain’s fundamental premise.

Elgin — a professor of biology and of education in Arts & Sciences and of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and of genetics in the School of Medicine — and her colleagues don’t believe teaching takes place at the expense of research or research at the expense of teaching.

She and her Science co-authors write that “excellence in scientific research and teaching need not be mutually exclusive but are instead intertwined and can interact synergistically to increase the effectiveness of both.”

The authors are biomedical research scientists who receive support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to create “new programs that more effectively engage students in learning science.” So, they admit that their situations are more favorable than most.

Elgin comments as well that Washington University has the resources to fund programs out of the reach of state colleges, even in this time of financial hardship.

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New nanoparticles make blood clots visible

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

A blood vessel (top) with ruptured atherosclerotic plaque, shown in yellow, is developing a blood clot. The nanoparticles, shown in blue and black, are targeted to a protein in the blood clot called fibrin, shown in light blue. A traditional CT image (bottom left) shows no difference between the blood clot and the calcium in the plaque, making it unclear whether this image shows a clot that should be treated. A spectral CT image (bottom right) “sees” the bismuth nanoparticles targeted to fibrin in green, differentiating it from calcium, still shown in white, in the plaque.

For almost two decades, cardiologists have searched for ways to see dangerous blood clots before they cause heart attacks.


Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that they have designed nanoparticles that find clots and make them visible to a new kind of X-ray technology.

According to Gregory Lanza, MD, PhD, a Washington University cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, these nanoparticles will take the guesswork out of deciding whether a person coming to the hospital with chest pain is actually having a heart attack.

“Every year, millions of people come to the emergency room with chest pain. For some of them, we know it’s not their heart. But for most, we’re not sure,” says Lanza, a professor of medicine. When there is any doubt, the patient must be admitted to the hospital and undergo tests to rule out or confirm a heart attack.

“Those tests cost money and they take time,” Lanza says.

Rather than an overnight stay to make sure the patient is stable, this new technology could reveal the location of a blood clot in a matter of hours.

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