chemistry

Lila Gierasch

Lila Gierasch is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lila Gierasch rather than just read about it. In short: Lila Mary Gierasch (born 1948 in Needham, Massachusetts) is an American biochemist and biophysicist. At present, she is a distinguished Professor working on "protein folding in the cell" in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the College of Natural Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Key takeaways

Lila Gierasch belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lila Gierasch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lila Gierasch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lila Mary Gierasch (born 1948 in Needham, Massachusetts) is an American biochemist and biophysicist. At present, she is a distinguished Professor working on "protein folding in the cell" in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the College of Natural Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Education and early career Lila M. Gierasch, like her mother Marian Bookhout Gierasch, studied at Mount Holyoke College. She graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, and earned her doctorate in biophysics from Harvard University in 1975.

Research and career In 1974, Gierasch began teaching at Amherst College, where she worked as an assistant professor in chemistry. She worked under Jean-Marie Lehn at Université Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg between 1977 and 1978. In 1979 she went to University of Delaware for a position as an assistant professor, and was promoted to a professor in chemistry in 1985. In 1988 she moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she worked as a professor in pharmacology and served as the Robert A. Welch Professor of Biochemistry. In 1994, Gierasch returned to Massachusetts to become a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is currently a Distinguished Professor within the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She served as the Editor In Chief, Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) from 2016 to 2021. Gierasch's research has focused on the issue of protein folding. She has studied the relationship between amino acid sequences and protein structure, focusing in particular on how proteins fold in vivo. Her recent work has utilized computer modeling to analyze how the protein folding process occurs.

Personal life Gierasch met her husband John Pylant in Texas, and they were married in 1991.

Honors and service Gierasch was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. In 2019, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Gierasch served as the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Biological Chemistry between 2016 and 2021.

Awards 1984: Vincent du Vigneaud Award (American Peptide Society) 1985: Mary Lyon Award (Mount Holyoke College) 1986: Guggenheim Fellowship 1999: Chancellor's Medal (University of Massachusetts) 2006: Garvan–Olin Medal (American Chemical Society) 2006: Pioneer Award (National Institutes of Health) 2014: Mildred Cohn Award (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) 2018: Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry (American Chemical Society) 2019: R. Bruce Merrifield Award (American Peptide Society)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lila Gierasch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lila Gierasch claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lila Gierasch before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lila Gierasch ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lila Gierasch

In research: Lila Gierasch appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lila Gierasch in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lila Gierasch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 20th-century American biochemists, 20th-century American women biochemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lila Gierasch outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lila Gierasch in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lila Gierasch means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lila Gierasch out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lila Gierasch in simple terms?

Why does Lila Gierasch matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lila Gierasch?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lila Gierasch.