Biography:Paula V. Welander
Paula Welander | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Analysis of Methylotrophic Methanogenesis in Methanosarcina Barkeri Fusaro (2007) |
Paula Veronica Welander is a microbiologist and professor at Stanford University[1] who is known for her research using lipid biomarkers to investigate how life evolved on Earth.
Early life and career
Welander was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. Her mother and father immigrated from Mexico to Los Angeles in the early 1970’s.[2] She received her undergraduate degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1998.[3] She has a master's degree (2003) and a Ph.D. (2007) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[3] She went on to do postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Departments of Biology and of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.[4] Welander began her position at Stanford University in 2013,[3] and was awarded tenure in 2019.[4]
Research
Welander's graduate research examined factors controlling the use of methane by a group of Archaea.[5] For her postdoctoral research, she examined the production of a group of chemical compounds known as hopanoids.[6][7] Welander has examined lipids in acid-loving archaea and how changes in the lipids alter a cell's ability to grow.[8][9] Her research has further expanded our understanding of the organisms that produce triterpenoid lipids in aquatic environments.[10] Her more recent research centers on lipids, known as glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), that are found in archaeal cell walls.[11][12] Collectively, her research on lipids can be used to characterize how microbial life on Earth has changed over time.[13]
Honors and awards
In 2018, Welander received the Geobiology and Geomicrobiology Division Award for Outstanding Research from the Geological Society of America.[14] She also received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.[3]
Selected publications
- Sessions, Alex L.; Doughty, David M.; Welander, Paula V.; Summons, Roger E.; Newman, Dianne K. (2009-07-28). "The Continuing Puzzle of the Great Oxidation Event" (in English). Current Biology 19 (14): R567–R574. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.05.054. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 19640495.
- Welander, Paula V.; Hunter, Ryan C.; Zhang, Lichun; Sessions, Alex L.; Summons, Roger E.; Newman, Dianne K. (2009). "Hopanoids Play a Role in Membrane Integrity and pH Homeostasis in Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1" (in en). Journal of Bacteriology 191 (19): 6145–6156. doi:10.1128/JB.00460-09. ISSN 0021-9193. PMID 19592593.
- Welander, Paula V.; Coleman, Maureen L.; Sessions, Alex L.; Summons, Roger E.; Newman, Dianne K. (2010-05-11). "Identification of a methylase required for 2-methylhopanoid production and implications for the interpretation of sedimentary hopanes" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (19): 8537–8542. doi:10.1073/pnas.0912949107. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 20421508. Bibcode: 2010PNAS..107.8537W.
- Wei, Jeremy H.; Yin, Xinchi; Welander, Paula V. (2016). "Sterol Synthesis in Diverse Bacteria". Frontiers in Microbiology 7: 990. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.00990. ISSN 1664-302X. PMID 27446030.
- Welander, Paula V.; Summons, Roger E. (2012-08-07). "Discovery, taxonomic distribution, and phenotypic characterization of a gene required for 3-methylhopanoid production" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (32): 12905–12910. doi:10.1073/pnas.1208255109. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 22826256. Bibcode: 2012PNAS..10912905W.
References
- ↑ "Paula V. Welander". https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZYufUlwAAAAJ&hl=en.
- ↑ "Q&A: What does it mean to be Latinx in the geosciences?" (in en). 2020-09-22. https://earth.stanford.edu/news/qa-what-does-it-mean-be-latinx-geosciences.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Paula V. Welander's Profile | Stanford Profiles" (in en). https://profiles.stanford.edu/paula-welander?tab=bio.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Dr. Paula Welander - Geobiology & Geomicrobiology Division". https://community.geosociety.org/gbgm/dfg/paulawelander.
- ↑ Welander, Paula V.; Metcalf, William W. (2005-07-26). "Loss of the mtr operon in Methanosarcina blocks growth on methanol, but not methanogenesis, and reveals an unknown methanogenic pathway" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (30): 10664–10669. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502623102. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 16024727. Bibcode: 2005PNAS..10210664W.
- ↑ Welander, Paula V.; Hunter, Ryan C.; Zhang, Lichun; Sessions, Alex L.; Summons, Roger E.; Newman, Dianne K. (2009). "Hopanoids Play a Role in Membrane Integrity and pH Homeostasis in Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1" (in en). Journal of Bacteriology 191 (19): 6145–6156. doi:10.1128/JB.00460-09. ISSN 0021-9193. PMID 19592593.
- ↑ Welander, Paula V.; Coleman, Maureen L.; Sessions, Alex L.; Summons, Roger E.; Newman, Dianne K. (2010-05-11). "Identification of a methylase required for 2-methylhopanoid production and implications for the interpretation of sedimentary hopanes" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (19): 8537–8542. doi:10.1073/pnas.0912949107. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 20421508. Bibcode: 2010PNAS..107.8537W.
- ↑ Zeng, Zhirui; Liu, Xiao-Lei; Wei, Jeremy H.; Summons, Roger E.; Welander, Paula V. (2018-12-18). "Calditol-linked membrane lipids are required for acid tolerance in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (51): 12932–12937. doi:10.1073/pnas.1814048115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 30518563. Bibcode: 2018PNAS..11512932Z.
- ↑ Hadhazy, Adam (March 2019). "Invulnerability Cloak". Natural History; New York 127 (3): pp. 8.
- ↑ Banta, Amy B.; Wei, Jeremy H.; Gill, Clare C. C.; Giner, José-Luis; Welander, Paula V. (2017-01-10). "Synthesis of arborane triterpenols by a bacterial oxidosqualene cyclase" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (2): 245–250. doi:10.1073/pnas.1617231114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 28028245. Bibcode: 2017PNAS..114..245B.
- ↑ Zeng, Zhirui; Chen, Huahui; Yang, Huan; Chen, Yufei; Yang, Wei; Feng, Xi; Pei, Hongye; Welander, Paula V. (2022-03-22). "Identification of a protein responsible for the synthesis of archaeal membrane-spanning GDGT lipids" (in en). Nature Communications 13 (1): 1545. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29264-x. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 35318330. Bibcode: 2022NatCo..13.1545Z.
- ↑ Zeng, Zhirui; Liu, Xiao-Lei; Farley, Kristen R.; Wei, Jeremy H.; Metcalf, William W.; Summons, Roger E.; Welander, Paula V. (2019-11-05). "GDGT cyclization proteins identify the dominant archaeal sources of tetraether lipids in the ocean" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (45): 22505–22511. doi:10.1073/pnas.1909306116. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 31591189. Bibcode: 2019PNAS..11622505Z.
- ↑ Summons, Roger E.; Welander, Paula V.; Gold, David A. (2022). "Lipid biomarkers: molecular tools for illuminating the history of microbial life" (in en). Nature Reviews Microbiology 20 (3): 174–185. doi:10.1038/s41579-021-00636-2. ISSN 1740-1526. PMID 34635851. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-021-00636-2.
- ↑ "Excellence Awards - Geobiology & Geomicrobiology Division". https://community.geosociety.org/gbgm/awards/award2.
External links
- Paula V. Welander publications indexed by Google Scholar
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