William Ja

摘要

William Ja, assistant professor of metabolism and ageing at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, is getting noticed - and funded -for his cross-disciplinary research in protein chemistry and fruitfly genetics. Did you intentionally leap from a PhD in chemistry into a postdoc in biology? Yes and no. I majored in chemistry at the Uni-versity of California, Berkeley, as an undergrad-uate, but always knew I wanted to do something biological. I just didn't know what. While getting my chemistry PhD at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, I wanted to bridge the gap between chemistry and biology, so I switched to a postdoc in pure biology. Then I got the chance to work with Seymour Benzer, a pioneer in molecular biology known for unrav-elling the ties between genes, behaviour and longevity. I loved it, but realized how difficult it is to stay at the forefront of two disciplines.