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Paula V. Welander

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Paula Welander
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Children2
Scientific career
ThesisAnalysis 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

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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

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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

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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

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References

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  1. ^ "Paula V. Welander". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  2. ^ "Q&A: What does it mean to be Latinx in the geosciences?". Stanford Earth. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  3. ^ a b c d "Paula V. Welander's Profile | Stanford Profiles". profiles.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  4. ^ a b "Dr. Paula Welander - Geobiology & Geomicrobiology Division". community.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  5. ^ 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". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (30): 10664–10669. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10210664W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502623102. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1180775. PMID 16024727.
  6. ^ 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". Journal of Bacteriology. 191 (19): 6145–6156. doi:10.1128/JB.00460-09. ISSN 0021-9193. PMC 2747905. PMID 19592593.
  7. ^ 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". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (19): 8537–8542. Bibcode:2010PNAS..107.8537W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0912949107. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2889317. PMID 20421508.
  8. ^ 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". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (51): 12932–12937. Bibcode:2018PNAS..11512932Z. doi:10.1073/pnas.1814048115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6305003. PMID 30518563.
  9. ^ Hadhazy, Adam (March 2019). "Invulnerability Cloak". Natural History; New York. Vol. 127, no. 3. p. 8 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ 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". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (2): 245–250. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114..245B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1617231114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5240688. PMID 28028245.
  11. ^ 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". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 1545. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13.1545Z. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29264-x. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 8941075. PMID 35318330.
  12. ^ 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". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (45): 22505–22511. Bibcode:2019PNAS..11622505Z. doi:10.1073/pnas.1909306116. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6842593. PMID 31591189.
  13. ^ Summons, Roger E.; Welander, Paula V.; Gold, David A. (2022). "Lipid biomarkers: molecular tools for illuminating the history of microbial life". Nature Reviews Microbiology. 20 (3): 174–185. doi:10.1038/s41579-021-00636-2. ISSN 1740-1526. PMID 34635851. S2CID 238637754.
  14. ^ "Excellence Awards - Geobiology & Geomicrobiology Division". community.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
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