Natalia Jura, PhD, is the 27th recipient of the annual Byers Award. Image by Sonya Yruel
Natalia Jura, PhD, imagines the molecules she studies as dancers. “They have to come together for the magic to happen,” she explained during this year’s Byers Award Lecture in Basic Science, which she delivered on May 2.
-UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood
Jura’s lab seeks to understand how certain proteins on the surface of cells join to form “dancing partners.” This coupling, called dimerization, initiates signals to a cell that tell it how to behave, such as where to situate itself in developing tissue or when to divide. It’s part of the awe-inspiring “logic of life” that moved her to become a molecular biologist.
Image by Sonya Yruel
But when dancers follow the wrong choreography, disease can ensue. In her talk, titled “Getting the Message Across: How Cell Signaling Goes Awry in Human Disease,” Jura described her lab’s 10-year-long quest to photograph a capering couple that’s involved in many cases of breast cancer. The resulting images show how mutations in this molecular pair drive cancer growth and point to potential targets for new cancer drugs.
“Natalia Jura embodies our commitment to advancing scientific knowledge for the benefit of people everywhere and by doing that through fundamental discovery science,” said UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS, the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor.
Jura, an associate professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and an investigator at the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, is the 27th recipient of the annual Byers Award. Established with a philanthropic gift from Brook and Shawn Byers and their family, the award recognizes outstanding research by a mid-career faculty member.
“Basic science is the seed corn of ideas,” Brook Byers said. “Unrestricted funding for scientists to pursue their curiosity and take risks is important.”