Biophysicist Prof. Dorothee Kern (BCHM) was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator last month, joining about 300 other elite scientists nationwide who receive long-term research funding from the Institute.Selected from 43 national candidates, Kern was recognized for her work in capturing the movements of enzymes during chemical reactions. Her research could establish patterns of enzyme movement, allowing scientists to use that understanding to develop drugs that interrupt or repair these pathways, including those implicated in HIV, cancer and Alzheimer's.

Created by the billionaire aviator, the institute helps "to enhance science education at all levels and maintain the vigor of biomedical science worldwide," according to its Web site. The award's recipients are picked from nominees that are selected annually by top research universities and academic health centers.

This year, the institute selected 43 investigators from a pool of about 800 nominated researchers. Howard Hughes investigators become employees of the institute for their five-year appointment, but the researchers remain affiliated with their host institutions. The institute's "people, not projects" funding principle allows researchers to pursue their interests without deadline pressure, according to its Web site.

The institute also provides funding for lab assistants and equipment, and reimburses universities for the use of their lab space.

Kern, the fourth of 11 members of the biochemistry faculty to be named a Howard Hughes investigator, hopes her research will help establish new methods of drug design.

She said the most commonly used method to design drugs is trial and error. Researchers consult a large library of millions of compounds where a certain HIV, cancer or other proteins are observed.

"[The drugs'] molecules have to bind strongly to [disease-causing] proteins and kill their functions," Kern said. "But how do you find which [molecules] to use? This drug may kill cancer but also some other proteins."

If Kern's vision is realized, researchers would be able to understand more fully the physics behind the proteins and could rely on a computer to calculate what proteins would best attach to a specific protein without performing repetitive and expensive experiments.

According to Kern, because researchers have assumed that these proteins are always static, they have been unable to use a more efficient drug-screening process.

"Those experiments are clearly just a starting point," Kern said. "There are a lot of missing pieces and the main method you use is nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with big magnets. But those experiments don't necessarily give us humans the entire movie. It gives a starting structure and tells you which part is moving and how fast."

Kern was drawn to biophysics through her experience in East Germany as a member of the first division of the country's National Women's Basketball teams in the early 1990s. When she presents her research, Kern often uses sports analogies to explain the abstract movements of proteins.

Kern, who received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Martin Luther University in Germany, has also been the recipient of the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and the Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society.