MEDIA CONTACT: Megan Fellman at (847) 491-3115 or fellman@northwestern.edu

October 6, 2003

Biochemist Rosenzweig Is MacArthur Fellow

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University biochemist Amy C. Rosenzweig has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The young researcher, along with 23 other MacArthur Fellows, will receive a five-year “no strings attached” fellowship worth $500,000.

“I am very excited and honored to be chosen as a MacArthur Fellow,” said Rosenzweig, associate professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology and of chemistry. “It is really gratifying to have our work recognized in this way -- and not just my efforts but also those of the wonderful students, post-doctoral researchers and collaborators I’ve worked with during the past six years.”

“Amy’s work has revealed for the first time a three-dimensional picture on an atomic scale of how metals are carried and moved through a cell by a variety of proteins,” said Daniel I. Linzer, dean of Northwestern’s Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. “Her studies also give us insights into how these metals reach their final destinations within certain proteins, an essential event for the biological activity of these proteins.”

Rosenzweig is an expert in the structure and biochemistry of metalloproteins, specialized proteins that are essential to the healthy functioning of all cells in the human body. Her research focuses on how these essential yet toxic metal ions are handled in cells and how metalloenzymes catalyze complex and difficult chemical transformations.

One of Rosenzweig’s research projects focuses on human copper homeostasis. Her research group is determining the three-dimensional structures of proteins involved in delivering copper to distinct cellular locations and particular target proteins. In 2001 her group was the first to determine the molecular structure of a metallochaperone (a protein that delivers metals to enzymes that need them to function) bound to its target protein.

These metal delivery proteins, called copper chaperones, are linked to human diseases, including Menkes syndrome, Wilson disease and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and are potential targets for new drugs. Aberrant metal metabolism also may be an important element in other diseases, including Alzheimer’s and prion diseases.

Among other recent projects, Rosenzweig and her colleagues have explored the role of magnesium in beta-lactam formation. Understanding this reaction will be important for overcoming resistance to penicillins and cephalosporins. (Both are used to treat infections caused by bacteria.) The group also is interested in biological catalysts that convert methane gas to methanol, a reaction of both industrial and environmental importance.

Rosenzweig, who joined the Northwestern faculty in 1997, is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award (2001) and a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (1999).

She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. Rosenzweig was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School from 1994 to 1997.

The MacArthur Fellows Program is designed to emphasize the importance of the creative individual in society. Fellows are selected for the originality and creativity of their work and the potential to do more in the future. Candidates are nominated, evaluated and selected through a rigorous and confidential process. No one may apply for the awards, nor are any interviews conducted with nominees. The inaugural class of MacArthur Fellows was named in 1981. More information can be found online at www.macfound.org.

Mary Zimmerman, professor of performance studies at Northwestern and 2002 Tony Award–winning theatre director, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1998.