EVA NOGALES RECEIVES CHABOT SCIENCE AWARD
Her Pioneering Research Is Important for Cancer Treatment

May 1, 2005

Dr. Eva Nogales is the recipient of the second Chabot Science Award, to be presented at the Chabot Space & Science Center's Gala on June 25, 2005. The $5,000 award honors excellence in the field of scientific and technological discovery and is in recognition of her work in the mapping of the atomic structure of the cellular protein, tubulin. The protein is a flexible component of a cell that allows it to divide and multiply, and is the target the anti-cancer drug, "taxol," a natural substance found in the bark of the Pacific yew tree. By knowing the atomic structure of this protein, scientists are hopeful that a more effective anti-cancer drug can be synthesized. Tubulin was discovered in the 1950's, but its atomic structure was unknown until Dr. Nogales and her team presented the atomic model in 1998. Since that discovery, Dr. Nogales and her colleagues have refined their understanding of the structure and function of tubulin and have employed the technique used to map it,cryoelectron microscopy, to analyze the structure of other complexes within cells.

Dr. Edward Penhoet, chair of the selection committee and a member of Chabot's Board of Directors said, "We are extremely proud to have this opportunity to honor Dr. Nogales for her outstanding contribution to science. The significance of her investigation into the structure of this molecule has a profound effect on our understanding of a critical component of all eukaryotic cells and our ability to treat cancer and save lives."

Dr. Nogales is a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Associate Professor at UC Berkeley, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology; and is the Principal Investigator of the Nogales Lab. Born in Madrid, Nogales received her undergraduate degree in physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1989. Her Ph.D. in biophysics was earned from the University of Keele in England, with a thesis on how tubulin proteins are polymerized into long chains that form microtubules and other distorted polymers. She has published widely and been awarded the Annual Burton Award by the Microscopy Society of America as well as the Outstanding Performance Award by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.