Deborah Mowshowitz (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Bernhardt) is an American

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

and a Professor of Biology and Director of Undergraduate Programs and Lab Operations at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Mowshowitz was trained in pure biochemistry and has done research in

RNA processing Transcriptional modification or co-transcriptional modification is a set of biological processes common to most eukaryotic cells by which an RNA primary transcript is chemically altered following transcription from a gene to produce a mature, f ...

. In her early work she focused on pedagogy and biology education.

Education

Mowshowitz was awarded a BA from

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

and entered the Sue Golding Graduate Division of the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

. At Albert Einstein, Mowshowitz studied biochemistry under

James E. Darnell James Edwin Darnell Jr. (born September 9, 1930, Columbus, Mississippi) is an American biologist who made significant contributions to RNA processing and cytokine signaling and is author of the cell biology textbook ''Molecular Cell Biology''. ...

and received her PhD in 1969 for a thesis entitled "tRNA synthesis in

HeLa HeLa (; also Hela or hela) is an immortalized cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. The line is derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951, named after Henrietta La ...

cells".

Research

Mowshowitz was Darnell's first graduate student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. As Darnell's student, Mowshowitz worked on RNA processing; up until that point, it had been thought that preprocessing was limited to pre-rRNA, but Mowshowitz demonstrated the existence of pre-

tRNA Transfer RNA (abbreviated tRNA and formerly referred to as sRNA, for soluble RNA) is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes), that serves as the physical link between the mRNA and the amino ac ...

s as well. Mowshowitz used

gel electrophoresis Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of biomacromolecules ( DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.) and their fragments, based on their size and charge. It is used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge or size (IEF ...

to separate smaller, slower-migrating pre-tRNA candidate particles which had been labeled with radioactive

uridine Uridine (symbol U or Urd) is a glycosylated pyrimidine analog containing uracil attached to a ribose ring (or more specifically, a ribofuranose) via a β-N1-glycosidic bond. The analog is one of the five standard nucleosides which make up nuclei ...

. She observed the pre-tRNAs under

methionine Methionine (symbol Met or M) () is an essential amino acid in humans. As the precursor of other amino acids such as cysteine and taurine, versatile compounds such as SAM-e, and the important antioxidant glutathione, methionine plays a critical ro ...

-starvation conditions and proposed that the pre-tRNAs were longer than tRNAs proper. Early work by Mowshowitz focused on pure biochemistry, in areas such as

enzyme assay Enzyme assays are laboratory methods for measuring enzymatic activity. They are vital for the study of enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibition. Enzyme units The quantity or concentration of an enzyme can be expressed in molar amounts, as with a ...

s and

biosynthesis Biosynthesis is a multi-step, enzyme-catalyzed process where substrates are converted into more complex products in living organisms. In biosynthesis, simple compounds are modified, converted into other compounds, or joined to form macromolecules. ...

in yeast. She has also published in the ''

Journal of Virology The ''Journal of Virology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research concerning all aspects of virology. It was established in 1967 and is published by the American Society for Microbiology. Research papers are available ...

'' and in ''

Analytical Biochemistry ''Analytical Biochemistry'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1960. It covers the field of biochemistry. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 2.219. Abstracting and Indexing ...

''.

Teaching

Mowshowitz joined the faculty at Columbia when Darnell, her thesis adviser at AECOM, was appointed to a professorship at Columbia and informed her of an open faculty position. While Mowshowitz is trained in research, she decided to focus on teaching after joining the Columbia faculty, and sought to focus on the areas of pedagogy and biology education in particular. Mowshowitz personally controls the introductory biology sequence at Columbia, and lectures on occasion. She also oversees the biology department at Columbia as Director of Undergraduate Programs and Lab Operations. Mowshowitz believes in a problem-based learning approach to teaching biology, emphasizing applying deeper principles over rote memorization of pathways and structures. She has stated that she assigns students advanced problems based on famous historical experiments in her introductory classes in order to encourage them to synthesize knowledge to solve problems; she has stated that some of her exam problems ask students to make the critical deductions in experiments which earned their original authors the Nobel Prize. Her introductory biology course is available as

massive open online course A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, m ...

. She received the Presidential Outstanding Teaching Award in 1999.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mowshowitz, Deborah American women biochemists Columbia University faculty Jewish scientists Brandeis University alumni Albert Einstein College of Medicine alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)