Spring 2001 -- Vol. 18, No. 1

FACES OF PENN STATE

Jerry Workman
Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry

With his research concerning gene regulation and gene expression, Jerry Workman provides an area of basic understanding that must be established to provide a greater impact and understanding of many diseases.

Researchers and university laboratories thrive on funding. In those laboratories, ideas and money combine in the search for discoveries, solutions, and understanding.

Sometimes funding for very fundamental research comes from surprising places. For example, Jerry Workman receives important funding from the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia Society of America but he does not really study either disease.

"We've never studied the specific diseases per se," Workman says. "But, those societies are wise enough to realize that there's a lot we don't know about the basic systems of gene regulation. By studying the basics, you can understand how cancers and other diseases develop.

"Ideally, what we would study is the normal regulation of genes. With most cancers you have misregulation of genes and you have abnormal growth. We try to find out what happens normally so we'll know where things went wrong."

Tracking down the secrets of gene regulation was not Workman's initially planned career path. If anything, he expected to be tracking down animals as a wildlife ecologist. He grew up in rural Illinois, loved the outdoors, and went to college expecting to follow a career path that included animals.

Instead, as an undergraduate his interest in cell biology grew and he eventually became a molecular biologist.

He's one of the more respected researchers in his field, too. At Penn State, he's the only faculty member working as an associate investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Members of the institute continue to work at their respective universities but receive substantial support from the institute itself.

Along with his own efforts, Workman benefits from several factors at Penn State and within the scientific community as a whole. Collaboration and technology rank among the most important factors.

"In terms of gene regulation and transcription, there are many labs at Penn State that are related but each has a different expertise," Workman says. "It's convenient here because our students and postdocs can go ask questions of other members of the department or other researchers in this field in other departments. It gives you a broader intellectual exchange."

Of course, with e-mail and contacts at other universities, the opportunities exist for that exchange to grow even more.

In terms of technology, Workman remembers the days when he and classmates adapted hand-made syringes to measure materials, and he contrasts that time with the precise control computers and robotics have now brought to the field. Also, the Internet provides researchers with easy access to important information.

"Those things allow researchers to be more efficient and address pertinent questions," he says. "With easy access to important basic information, you can really focus on your work and improve what you do."

-- By Steve Sampsell

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