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Pamela Bjorkman

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Pamela Bjorkman
Born1956
Alma mater
SpouseKai George Zinn
Children2
Scientific career
Institutions

Pamela Jane Bjorkman (also spelled Pamela J. Björkman born 1956[1]) is an American biochemist. She is the Max Delbrück Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Adjunct Professor of biochemistry at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).[2] Her research centers on the study of the three-dimensional structures of proteins related to Class I MHC, or Major Histocompatibility Complex, proteins of the immune system. Bjorkman is most well known as a pioneer in the field of x-ray crystallography.

HLA-A2 molecule; peptide antigen groove (starred) on top domain

Bjorkman earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at the University of Oregon, under the guidance of Hayes Griffith and Patricia Jost. She received her PhD in biochemistry at Harvard University in 1984, where she worked in the laboratory of Don Wiley. She stayed on in Wiley's lab in a postdoctoral position where she ultimately solved the first crystal structure of an MHC protein - the HLA-A2 human histocompatibility antigen. This work was published in 1987,[3] first at 3.5Å resolution (PDB entry 1HLA) and then refined at 2.6Å (PDB entry 3HLA).[4] Bjorkman continued her postdoctoral research at Stanford University in the laboratory of Mark Davis, studying the T-cell receptors that recognize antigens presented in the binding groove of MHC proteins. In 1989, she joined the Biology faculty at the California Institute of Technology as an associate professor. She earned tenure as a full professor in 1998, and became an HHMI investigator in 1999.

Her laboratory does research in structural biology to study the protein interactions involved in immune recognition, using techniques such as X-ray crystallography and confocal and electron microscopy. They also study proteins related to MHCs that have evolved to perform very different functions, such as the Zn-alpha2-glycoprotein (ZAG), a fat-depleting factor in human blood serum (PDB entry 1ZAG),[5] and are developing improved antibodies that can neutralize a broader spectrum of HIV variants (PDB entry 3U7Y).[6]

Bjorkman is married to the neurobiologist Kai George Zinn, also a full professor at Caltech. Bjorkman and Zinn have two children.

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  2. ^ Researchers have isolated a protein receptor in chickens responsible for transferring antibodies from mother to offspring. The Medical News. May 24, 2004.
  3. ^ Bjorkman PJ, Saper MA, Samraoui B, Bennett WS, Strominger JL, Wiley DC (1987). "Structure of the human class I histocompatibility antigen, HLA-A2". Nature. 329 (6139): 506–512. doi:10.1038/329506a0. PMID 3309677.
  4. ^ Saper MA, Bjorkman PJ, Wiley DC (1991). "Refined structure of the human histocompatibility antigen HLA-A2 at 2.6 A resolution". Journal of Molecular Biology. 219: 277–319. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(91)90567-p. PMID 2038058.
  5. ^ Sánchez LM, Chirino AJ, Bjorkman P (1999). "Crystal structure of human ZAG, a fat-depleting factor related to MHC molecules". Science. 283 (5409): 1914–1919. doi:10.1126/science.283.5409.1914. PMID 10206894.
  6. ^ Diskin R, Scheid JF, Marcovecchio PM, West AP Jr, Klein F, Gao H, Gnanapragasam PN, Abadir A, Seaman MS, Nussenzweig MC, Bjorkman PJ (2011). "Increasing the potency and breadth of an HIV antibody by using structure-based rational design". Science. 334 (6060): 1289–93. doi:10.1126/science.1213782. PMC 3232316. PMID 22033520.
  7. ^ "Bjorkman, Pamela J." National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
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