By Rolando Garcia
Natural Sciences and Mathematics

A University of Houston biologist who is a leader in the study of mutation and other molecular evolutionary processes was recently honored with the prestigious Humboldt Research Award for career achievements.

Dan Graur, John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the department of biology and biochemistry, was notified of his award in December by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, a German institute that supports scientific research and awards highly-coveted fellowships and prizes.

Prizes are given each year in a variety of scientific disciplines and Graur won the award in evolutionary biology. The award includes a prize of 60,000 euro as well as a presentation ceremony with the president of Germany in Berlin.

The award is given to scientists whose “fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future,” according to the Foundation’s website.

A key focus of Graur’s research has been the process of mutation. Because of selection some mutations survive and others die out – but an organism’s genome contains vast parts that are untouched by selections, and in these regions all mutations have an equal probability of surviving. By analyzing so-called “pseudogenes” – or genes that have died, biologists can discern a kind of fossil record of an organism’s long history of mutations. And by isolating the mutation phenomena apart from evolutionary selection, Graur said, scientists can start to make sense of a seemingly random process, detecting patterns in mutations and statistically predicting future mutations. Such knowledge, for example, could be crucial in devising flu vaccines that better anticipate virus mutations, he added.

Methodologies for analyzing vast amounts of molecular data is another focus of Graur’s research. A genome is like a huge manuscript written in a foreign language, whose grammar, syntax, and vocabulary are largely unknown, and scientists need methods for sifting through millions of sequences of seemingly random genetic text – much of it meaningless – to identify the functional parts and what they do. because of his work on compositional properties of genomes, Graur has been involved in many genome projects, such as sea urchin, cow, honeybee, body louse, flour beetle, two species of parasitic wasps, and three ant species.

Graur received an undergraduate and master’s degree from Tel Aviv University and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

His contributions to the field are not limited to research. Graur is the co-author of the most popular textbook in molecular evolution as well as a graphic artist, who designed the covers of every edition of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.