Unlocking the Molecule Pamela Bjorkman ’78 National Academy Scientist

Just slightly over 163 years ago, then-President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill creating a national academy to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report on any subject of science or art” for the United States government. In those 163 years, the National Academy of Sciences has researched everything from biology-based technology for space exploration to the education of children in poverty-stricken areas of the country. Each year, the NAS elects a small number of elite scientists to join its ranks — including Dr. Pamela Bjorkman, a University of Oregon alumna and professor and executive officer for biology at the California Institute of Technology. Since she began her scientific career, Bjorkman has attended several elite universities — but it all began with her degree in chemistry at the UO. “The opportunity to do research here was great,” she says. “I learned a huge amount of how science is done.” Bjorkman went on to earn her PhD from Harvard in biochemistry and molecular biology. She stayed on at Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow, then accepted a second postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s School of Medicine in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Today, Bjorkman and her research team at Caltech are making major advances in molecular immunology. In a 1999 study, Bjorkman’s lab determined the structure of a protein that causes cachexia, a wasting syndrome in cancer and AIDS patients. The discovery provides the scientific basis for future medical strategies in controlling cachexia and treating obesity. Investigators in her lab use a combined approach, including X-ray crystallography, molecular biology, and biochemistry. “I think one of the reasons she has been so successful is the combination of her extensive technical expertise, especially regarding crystallography, and her wide understanding of the biology of the systems that we study,” says Dr. Andrew Herr, a postdoctoral scholar studying in the Bjorkman Laboratory. “I have really benefited from her expertise in the field.” “The opportunity to try to link together bits of seemingly unrelated biological data to get the big picture is the most personally satisfying aspect of my work,” Bjorkman says. “Every once in a while, something clicks and I feel like our work contributes to understanding some part of biological function that was previously a mystery.” Bjorkman’s expertise in the field has been noted almost from the very beginning of her career as a scientist. She received numerous academic awards as a student at the UO, including a membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the elite undergraduate honors society. She went on to be awarded an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship, a Pew fellowship, and a Gairdner Foundation International Award for achievements in medical science, among many others. “It is very gratifying to have played even a small role in Pamela Bjorkman’s developing career,” says Dr. Hayes Griffith, UO professor of chemistry, who mentored Bjorkman as an undergraduate. “That is perhaps the most satisfying aspect of being a teacher.”

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