Investing in Top Faculty
Professor Jennifer Brodbelt
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in plasma or urine. Much of this is collaborative research with people who have skills
in biochemistry or pharmacokinetics so that they can help us track these compounds
throughout the body and understand their mechanisms.”
“When I first landed at UT-Austin, I was interested in molecular recognition and how
we could use mass spectrometry to study how one compound binds to another very
specifically. We’ve taken molecular recognition from a very basic stage of research to
something that has more health relevance by examining how certain anti-cancer drugs
bind to DNA. Once again, we’re developing mass spectrometry as a way to look at
evaluating new anticancer drugs, like new drugs that some of our organic colleagues
“Jenny is one of those lucky people who changes
might be developing for the first time. They have spent perhaps a year or more developing
little with time, a comment made of Keats by his
these new compounds and they only have very tiny quantities. We can take a little piece
friend and admirer Percy Shelley in the poem
of DNA, incubate it with the drug candidate and see if it binds by looking at the mass
“Adonais”. I got to know Jenny as a graduate
signature in the mass spectrum. Presumably, we can tell the organic chemists which
student of enormous energy and efficiency. She
worked with two advisors (I think she could
compounds might be most promising based on this sensitive screening.”
have managed more) myself and Peter Kissinger
An Endowed Professorship: Improving the Health of Research
– mass spectrometry and chromatography
(the latter fortunately now reborn as a mass
“In analytical chemistry we’re very focused on instrumentation. So rather than buying
spectroscopist). Jennifer’s organizational skills
bits and pieces of glassware, solvents, and reagents, we need big chunks of money
began with herself and extended to the rest to either buy or build instruments. For some of our work, we can buy commercial
of the research group - people looked better, instruments that might be several hundred thousand dollars up to half a million
worked better and were healthier and more
dollars for one spectrometer, and then we can customize the instrument by adding
disciplined when she was around. She was
a laser and use it for ten years to do great research. But that initial outlay of money
one of the first people to work on an Ion Trap
is a huge expense and most federal agencies have shifted their focus to supporting
Detector (ITD) instrument from Finnigan (now
personnel, such as graduate students and post-docs. It is very competitive to obtain
Thermo Fisher), using one of the first small batch
of these instruments that, with their successors,
grant money to buy instrumentation. So that’s a huge extra hurdle for those involved
now litter the earth. Using this instrument she
in instrumentation-intensive research.”
performed elegant reagent-selected chemical
“Private funding is a great dream for people in my situation. I can be pretty successful
ionization experiments – a topic at the junction
at writing grants to NSF and NIH that will support personnel, but the real challenge is
between chemistry and instrumentation that
that oftentimes federal agencies like to see institutional support in terms of matching
she has occupied with great distinction in the
years since. She also spent research time with a
money for new equipment. In other words, when you want to buy a new spectrometer,
prototype MS/MS ion trap instrument, built
federal agencies are often hoping that institutions will share the cost dollar for dollar.
Unfortunately there is nowhere near that level of cost sharing available from the
Continued on the facing page
College or the University.”
“Furthermore, we are training the next generation of scientists and they need to be
familiar with the newest tools and have hands-on experience. My group also builds
new mass spectrometers. Typically, building a mass spectrometer takes multiple years,
huge amounts of technical input, lots of wrong turns and restarts, and hopefully at the
end of 3-5 years, you’ll have something that is state-of-the-art. We’re inventors, but
it’s agonizing because it takes so long to see your efforts come to fruition.”
Ensuring the Health of the Academic Community
Professor Brodbelt has served the department and the College of Natural Sciences in
many capacities over the last twenty years. She has served as the Graduate Advisor to
the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry for nearly 15 years and was honored
with the University Graduate Advisor Award in 2001. She is a champion of the
students, helping them navigate their way through the program as they earn their
PhDs. She also serves as the Minority Liaison Officer for the department and works
diligently to increase the presence of minority students in the graduate program. She
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is involved in undergraduate programs such as the NSF/Pfizer Research Experiences
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