Nicanor Austriaco | |
---|---|
Born | Nicanor Robles Austriaco, Jr. November 1, 1968 Philippines |
Nationality | Filipino-American |
Alma mater | |
Known for | Biomedical ethics, theology, and the biology of aging |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Molecular biology |
Institutions | |
Thesis | UTH1 and the Genetic Control of Aging in the Yeast, Saccharomyces (1996) |
Doctoral advisor | Leonard P. Guarente |
Nicanor Robles Austriaco, Jr. OP is a Filipino-American molecular biologist and Catholic priest. He is a professor of biology and professor of theology at Providence College, in Providence, Rhode Island, [1] and a research fellow at the Center for Theology, Religious Studies, and Ethics, at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.
Austriaco attended the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Bachelor of Science Engineering (B.S.E.), summa cum laude, in 1989. He went on to earn a PhD in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1996, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute pre-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Leonard Guarente. His doctoral research involved the characterization of the first aging genes in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae .
In 1997, after a brief fellowship at the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research at the University College London, he entered the Order of Friars Preachers. He attended the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he earned his Master of Divinity degree and Licentiate in Sacred Theology. He completed his Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the University of Fribourg in 2015. Austriaco earned an M.B.A. degree from Providence College in 2020.
Since 2005, Austriaco has served on the faculty of Providence College. In the same year, he became an investigator at the Rhode Island Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) Program. He is also the founding director of ThomisticEvolution.org, which seeks to promote a Catholic approach to understanding evolution in the light of faith. [2] He is co-author of a book on Thomistic evolution. [3]
In 2011, Austriaco published a book titled Biomedicine and Beatitude: an Introduction to Catholic Bioethics. [4] The book responds to questions raised in scientific and medical ethics from the perspective of the Catholic moral tradition that is grounded in a natural law and virtue ethic.
He has also spoken on numerous questions at the interface between science and religion. Most recently, he has proposed that the historicity of Adam and Eve can still be reconciled with the very best genomic science. [5]
Austriaco is currently a visiting professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. As a fellow of the OCTA Research Team, he has been interviewed by Filipino TV channels on different aspects of COVID-19. [6]
In addition to his other work and publications, Austriaco is the founder and principal investigator of the Austriaco Lab. The laboratory is located at Providence College and is primarily an undergraduate research laboratory that investigates cell death using the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , as a model organism. [7] Because of the pandemic, the lab has pivoted to developing a yeast based delivery platform for a COVID-19 vaccine that can be easily deployed in developing countries. [8]
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a species of yeast. The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have been originally isolated from the skin of grapes. It is one of the most intensively studied eukaryotic model organisms in molecular and cell biology, much like Escherichia coli as the model bacterium. It is the microorganism which causes many common types of fermentation. S. cerevisiae cells are round to ovoid, 5–10 μm in diameter. It reproduces by budding.
Schizosaccharomyces pombe, also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically measure 3 to 4 micrometres in diameter and 7 to 14 micrometres in length. Its genome, which is approximately 14.1 million base pairs, is estimated to contain 4,970 protein-coding genes and at least 450 non-coding RNAs.
The mating of yeast, also known as yeast sexual reproduction, is a fundamental biological process that promotes genetic diversity and adaptation in yeast species. Yeast species, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are single-celled eukaryotes that can exist as either haploid cells, which contain a single set of chromosomes, or diploid cells, which contain two sets of chromosomes. Haploid yeast cells come in two mating types, a and α, each producing specific pheromones to identify and interact with the opposite type, thus displaying simple sexual differentiation. A yeast cell's mating type is determined by a specific genetic locus known as MAT, which governs its mating behaviour. Haploid yeast can switch mating types through a form of genetic recombination, allowing them to change mating type as often as every cell cycle. When two haploid cells of opposite mating types encounter each other, they undergo a complex signaling process that leads to cell fusion and the formation of a diploid cell. Diploid cells can reproduce asexually, but under nutrient-limiting conditions, they undergo meiosis to produce new haploid spores.
The Dominican House of Studies is a Catholic institution in Washington, DC, housing both the Priory of the Immaculate Conception, a community of the Province of St. Joseph of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, an ecclesiastical faculty of theology.
Saccharomyces boulardii is a tropical yeast first isolated from lychee and mangosteen fruit peel in 1923 by French scientist Henri Boulard. Although early reports claimed distinct taxonomic, metabolic, and genetic properties, S. boulardii is genetically a grouping of S. cerevisiae strains, sharing >99% genomic relatedness, giving the synonym S. cerevisiae var. boulardii.
Brian K. Kennedy is a scientist, performing research on the science of aging and healthy longevity. Since 2017, he has served as a Distinguished Professor in Biochemistry and Physiology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in the National University of Singapore, where he is currently the Director of the Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme and the Asian Centre for Reproductive Longevity and Equality. His efforts have been directed at building world-class longevity research in Singapore.
John C. Vidmar, O.P. is an associate professor of history at Providence College, Rhode Island where he also serves as provincial archivist and teaches history. Prior to his work at Providence, he served as associate professor, academic dean, acting president and prior teaching history for 15 years at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington D.C.
The University of Santo Tomas College of Science is the pure sciences school of the University of Santo Tomas, the oldest and the largest Catholic university in Manila, Philippines.
Benedict M. Ashley, O.P., was an American Catholic priest, theologian and philosopher who had a major influence on 20th century Catholic theology and ethics in America through his writing, teaching, and consulting with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He was a member of the Dominican Order.
Saccharomyces eubayanus, a cryotolerant type of yeast, is most likely the parent of the lager brewing yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus.
Jens Nielsen is the CEO of BioInnovation Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark, and professor of systems biology at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also an adjunct professor at the Danish Technical University and the University of Copenhagen. Nielsen is the most cited researcher in the field of metabolic engineering, and he is the most cited researcher in Biology and Biochemistry in Sweden and Denmark. He is the only foreign member of all three academies in the US and he is also foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was the founding president of the International Metabolic Engineering Society. He has additionally founded several biotech companies.
Leona D. Samson is the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and American Cancer Society Research Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she served as the Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences from 2001 to 2012. Before her professorship at MIT, she held a professorship at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is on the editorial board of the journal DNA Repair. Her research interests focus on "methods for measuring DNA repair capacity (DRC) in human cells", research the National Institute of Health recognized as pioneering in her field, for which the NIH granted her the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award.
Aerobic fermentation or aerobic glycolysis is a metabolic process by which cells metabolize sugars via fermentation in the presence of oxygen and occurs through the repression of normal respiratory metabolism. Preference of aerobic fermentation over aerobic respiration is referred to as the Crabtree effect in yeast, and is part of the Warburg effect in tumor cells. While aerobic fermentation does not produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in high yield, it allows proliferating cells to convert nutrients such as glucose and glutamine more efficiently into biomass by avoiding unnecessary catabolic oxidation of such nutrients into carbon dioxide, preserving carbon-carbon bonds and promoting anabolism.
Kenneth Henry Wolfe is an Irish geneticist and professor of genomic evolution at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.
Dr. Linda Bisson is a trained yeast geneticist who focuses on sugar catabolism and fermentation. She is a retired professor and geneticist from the University of California at Davis.
The Thomistic Institute is an academic institute of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, a Catholic pontifical faculty run by the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) located in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2009, its name derives from the order's heritage of Thomas Aquinas, as the institute is influenced by the Thomistic tradition. The institute was originally founded as an academic research institute of the Pontifical Faculty, but evolved into a network of campus chapters at universities throughout the United States, England, and Ireland that sponsors lectures on theology, philosophy, ethics, and politics. As of 2018, the institute had chapters at around 60 universities. Counted among its past speakers are Scottish philosophers Alasdair MacIntyre and John Haldane, French philosopher Remi Brague, American philosopher Robert Sokolowski, English philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, Australian philosopher Mark Johnston, the Theologian of the Pontifical Household Wojciech Giertych, and United States Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. In addition to individual lectures, the Institute has co-sponsored academic conferences with Harvard Law School, Yale University, New York University, Georgetown University, and Notre Dame University, among others. It also organizes an annual conference on Thomistic philosophy at Mt. St. Mary's College in Newburgh, New York and an annual Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science conference for faculty and graduate students in the experimental sciences and in philosophy, held in Washington, D.C.
Joseph Heitman is an American physician-scientist focused on research in genetics, microbiology, and infectious diseases. He is the James B. Duke Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine.
Bernard Dujon is a French geneticist, born on August 8, 1947, in Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine). He is Professor Emeritus at Sorbonne University and the Institut Pasteur since 2015. He is a member of the French Academy of sciences.
Lorraine S. Symington is a British-American geneticist. As the Harold S. Ginsberg Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University, her laboratory uses genetic, biochemical and molecular approaches to understand mechanisms of homology-directed double-strand break repair using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an experimental system.
Thomas Joseph White, O.P., is an American Catholic priest and theologian. On September 14, 2021, he succeeded Michał Paluch, OP, as rector of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He is a founding member of the bluegrass band the Hillbilly Thomists.
{{cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (help)