John Pham (scientist)

Last updated
John W. Pham
Citizenship United States
Alma materB.S. - Bates College (music and biochemistry) Ph.D. - Northwestern University (molecular biology)
Scientific career
Fields Molecular biology
Institutions Cell Press
Thesis Building the Drosophila RNA-induced silencing complex  (2006)
Doctoral advisor Erik Sontheimer

John W. Pham is an American molecular biologist and editor-in-chief of Cell, a prestigious scientific journal. He is an advocate for inclusion and diversity, and he represents LGBTQ and Asian communities. [1]

Contents

Biography

John Pham was born in the U.S. a few weeks after his parents and older siblings arrived as refugees from Vietnam, and he was raised in Florida. [1]

He earned a bachelor's degree (B.S.) in music and biochemistry from Bates College. He completed a Ph.D. at Northwestern University under advisor Erik Sontheimer. His research focused on understanding the mechanisms of RNA splicing and RNA interference. He presented his dissertation in 2006 which was entitled Building the Drosophila RNA-induced silencing complex. [2] [3]

After is PhD, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. [2]

Career at Cell Press

He joined Cell Press in 2008 as a member of the editorial team of the journal Molecular Cell, of which he would become the editor-in-chief later in 2012. In 2018, Pham was appointed editor-in-chief of Cell, succeeding Emilie Marcus who had departed in February 2018. [4] [5]

Involvement with inclusion and diversity

John Pham is a member of the LGBT community. In June 2019, he was a speaker at an event organized by Elsevier Pride and 500 Queer Scientists at the WorldPride NYC 2019. [6]

He has played a major role in making the journal Cell more inclusive. Since he started with Cell, he has helped shift the advisory board from roughly 20% women to 50% women. Additionally, the Cell reviewers have changed from 18% to 33% women during the time John Pahn has been editor-in-chief of the journal. According to his ideology, a more diverse science is better science, and including more women will lead to better ideas and talent. [7] [8] [9]

Personal life

As of July 2018, Pham resides in Dorchester, Boston with his partner, and their two dogs. Among is hobbies, he likes to run, enjoys good beer, tending to his plants, cooking, and hanging out with his partner and pets. [1] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elsevier</span> Dutch publishing and analytics company

Elsevier is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as The Lancet, Cell, the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, Trends, the Current Opinion series, the online citation database Scopus, the SciVal tool for measuring research performance, the ClinicalKey search engine for clinicians, and the ClinicalPath evidence-based cancer care service. Elsevier's products and services include digital tools for data management, instruction, research analytics, and assessment. Elsevier is part of the RELX Group, known until 2015 as Reed Elsevier, a publicly traded company. According to RELX reports, in 2022 Elsevier published more than 600,000 articles annually in over 2,800 journals; as of 2018 its archives contained over 17 million documents and 40,000 e-books, with over one billion annual downloads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small interfering RNA</span> Biomolecule

Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded RNA at first non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20–24 base pairs in length, similar to miRNA, and operating within the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. It interferes with the expression of specific genes with complementary nucleotide sequences by degrading mRNA after transcription, preventing translation. It was discovered in 1998, by Andrew Fire at Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC and Craig Mello at University of Massachusetts in Worcester.

The RNA-induced silencing complex, or RISC, is a multiprotein complex, specifically a ribonucleoprotein, which functions in gene silencing via a variety of pathways at the transcriptional and translational levels. Using single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) fragments, such as microRNA (miRNA), or double-stranded small interfering RNA (siRNA), the complex functions as a key tool in gene regulation. The single strand of RNA acts as a template for RISC to recognize complementary messenger RNA (mRNA) transcript. Once found, one of the proteins in RISC, Argonaute, activates and cleaves the mRNA. This process is called RNA interference (RNAi) and it is found in many eukaryotes; it is a key process in defense against viral infections, as it is triggered by the presence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyke march</span> Lesbian-led gathering and protest march

A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian and sapphic community. Dyke marches commonly take place the Friday or Saturday before LGBT pride parades. Larger metropolitan areas usually have several Pride-related happenings both before and after the march to further community building; with social outreach to specific segments such as older women, women of color, and lesbian parenting groups.

<i>Cell</i> (journal) Scientific journal

Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers across a broad range of disciplines within the life sciences. Areas covered include molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology, stem cells, developmental biology, genetics and genomics, proteomics, cancer research, immunology, neuroscience, structural biology, microbiology, virology, physiology, biophysics, and computational biology. The journal was established in 1974 by Benjamin Lewin and is published twice monthly by Cell Press, owned by Elsevier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NYC Pride March</span> Event celebrating the LGBTQ community

The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. The largest pride parade and the largest pride event in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June, and carries spiritual and historical significance for the worldwide LGBTQIA+ community and its advocates. Entertainer Madonna stated in 2024, "Aside from my birthday, New York Pride is the most important day of the year." The route through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing the Stonewall National Monument, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights.

Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) is the largest class of small non-coding RNA molecules expressed in animal cells. piRNAs form RNA-protein complexes through interactions with piwi-subfamily Argonaute proteins. These piRNA complexes are mostly involved in the epigenetic and post-transcriptional silencing of transposable elements and other spurious or repeat-derived transcripts, but can also be involved in the regulation of other genetic elements in germ line cells.

David Moore Glover is a British geneticist and Research Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He served as Balfour Professor of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, a Wellcome Trust investigator in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He serves as the first editor-in-chief of the open-access journal Open Biology published by the Royal Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Serano</span> American writer and activist

Julia Michelle Serano is an American writer, musician, spoken-word performer, transgender and bisexual activist, and biologist. She is known for her transfeminist books, such as Whipping Girl (2007), Excluded (2013), and Outspoken (2016). She is also a public speaker who has given many talks at universities and conferences. Her writing is frequently featured in queer, feminist, and popular culture magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RNA interference</span> Biological process of gene regulation

RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by other names, including co-suppression, post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), and quelling. The detailed study of each of these seemingly different processes elucidated that the identity of these phenomena were all actually RNAi. Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on RNAi in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which they published in 1998. Since the discovery of RNAi and its regulatory potentials, it has become evident that RNAi has immense potential in suppression of desired genes. RNAi is now known as precise, efficient, stable and better than antisense therapy for gene suppression. Antisense RNA produced intracellularly by an expression vector may be developed and find utility as novel therapeutic agents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT culture in New York City</span>

New York City has been described as the gay capital of the world and the central node of the LGBTQ+ sociopolitical ecosystem, and is home to one of the world's largest and most prominent LGBTQ+ populations. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rise buildings, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated metaphorically, "Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinkwashing (LGBT)</span> Promotional use of LGBT rights

Pinkwashing, also known as rainbow-washing, is the strategy of deploying messages that are superficially sympathetic towards the LGBTQ community for ends having little or nothing to do with LGBTQ equality or inclusion, including LGBT marketing.

Ruth Lehmann is a developmental and cell biologist. She is the Director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. She previously was affiliated with the New York University School of Medicine, where she was the Director of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor of Cell Biology, and the Chair of the Department of Cell Biology. Her research focuses on germ cells and embryogenesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subhash Chandra Lakhotia</span> Indian biologist (born 1945)

Subhash Chandra Lakhotia is an Indian cytogeneticist, academic, Distinguished Professor of Zoology, and the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) Distinguished Fellow at the Banaras Hindu University. He is known for his pioneering research on Drosophila with regard to its chromosome organization and replication. A Raja Ramanna fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Atomic Energy, he is an elected fellow of all three major Indian science academies: Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences, India. He is a Senior Fellow of the Cell Stress Society International (USA). The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Haifan Lin is a Chinese-born American stem cell biologist. He is the Eugene Higgins Chair Professor of Cell Biology at Yale University and the founding Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center. He previously founded and directed the Stem Cell Research Program at Duke University. Recognized for his significant contributions to stem cell research, he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip D. Zamore</span> American molecular biologist

Phillip D. Zamore is an American molecular biologist and biochemist who co-developed the first in vitro system for studying the mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi). He is the Gretchen Stone Cook Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. Zamore is chair of the RNA Therapeutics Institute (RTI), established in 2009, and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2008. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queer Liberation March</span> Annual protest march in New York City since 2019

The Queer Liberation March is an annual LGBT protest march in Manhattan, organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition as an anti-corporate alternative to the NYC Pride March.

Lesbian erasure is a form of lesbophobia that involves the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbian women or relationships in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbian erasure also refers to instances wherein lesbian issues, activism, and identity is deemphasized or ignored within feminist groups or the LGBT community.

Richard William Carthew is a developmental biologist and quantitative biologist at Northwestern University. He is a professor of molecular biosciences and is the director of the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Lipshitz</span>

Howard David Lipshitz is an American and Canadian biologist who does genetic research on the fruit fly, Drosophila.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Caputo, Joseph (July 26, 2018). "A Q&A with John Pham, the new Editor-in-Chief of Cell". Cell Mentor. Cell Press. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "John Pham, PhD". UMass Chan Medical School. p. Sontheimer Lab Alumni. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  3. Pham, John W. (2006). Building the Drosophila RNA-induced silencing complex (Thesis). OCLC   124095747.
  4. Cell Press communications team (June 18, 2018). "John Pham appointed as new editor-in-chief of Cell". Cell Press. pp. News. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Editors and staff". Cell. Cell Press. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  6. Parsons, David James (June 20, 2019). "Elsevier and 500 Queer Scientists to hold NYC event for World Pride". Elsevier Connect. Archived from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  7. "Reflections of a reluctant leader - with John Pham, editor of Cell". Listen Notes. 17 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  8. Pahm, John. "Authoring tips, Inclusion & Diversity in Scientific Publishing". Elsevier. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  9. Lavine, Greg (September 6, 2019). "'Cell' Editor Pulls Curtain Back on Journal's Inner Workings". NIH Record. Retrieved June 24, 2024.