Felisa Wolfe-Simon

Felisa Lauren Wolfe-Simon
Wolfe-Simon at the 2011 Time 100 gala
Born	Felisa Lauren Wolfe
Residence	US
Fields	Biochemistry Microbiology Astrobiology Geochemistry Geomicrobiology Oceanography
Institutions	NASA Astrobiology Institute US Geological Survey Rutgers University
Alma mater	Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (Ph.D.) Oberlin College (B.A.) Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M.)
Known for	GFAJ-1 bacterium

Felisa Wolfe-Simon is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. As a NASA research fellow in residence at the US Geological Survey and a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Wolfe-Simon led the team that discovered GFAJ-1, an extremophile bacterium that they claim is capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of its phosphorus and sustain its growth.

Contents 1 Education 2 Career 3 Awarded fellowships and funding 4 Publications 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Education

Wolfe-Simon did her undergraduate studies at Oberlin College and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Chemistry and a Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance and Ethnomusicology at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.^[1] She received her Doctor of Philosophy in oceanography from the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in 2006 with a dissertation titled The Role and Evolution of Superoxide Dismutases in Algae.^[2]

Career

Wolfe-Simon's research focuses on evolutionary microbiology and exotic metabolic pathways. At a conference in 2008 and subsequent 2009 paper, Wolfe-Simon and colleagues proposed that arsenate (AsO3−
4) could serve as a substitute for phosphate (PO3−
4) in various forms of biochemistry.^[3] As late as March 2010, she had been hinting of some shadow biosphere results to the press.^[4][5] According to Paul Davies, who coauthored that initial report, Wolfe-Simon was the one who had the critical insight that arsenic might be able to substitute for phosphorus.^[6]

Wolfe-Simon then led a search for such an organism by targeting the naturally occurring arsenic-rich Mono Lake, California. This search led to the discovery of the bacterium GFAJ-1, which her team proposes is able to incorporate arsenate as a substitute for a small percentage of the typical phosphate in its DNA and other essential biomolecules. If correct, this would be the only known organism to be capable of replacing phosphorus in its DNA and other vital biochemical functions.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} The Science publication and an hour-long December 2, 2010 NASA news conference were publicized and led to "wild speculations on the Web about extraterrestrial life".^[12] Wolfe-Simon was the only one of the paper's authors at that news conference.^[13] The news conference was promptly met with criticism by scientists and journalists.^[14] In the following month, Wolfe-Simon (and her co-authors and NASA) responded to criticisms through an online FAQ and an exclusive interview with a Science reporter, but also announced they would not respond further outside of scientific peer-review.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20]} Wolfe-Simon left USGS in May 2011 to pursue her research elsewhere.^[21] Wolfe-Simon claims she did not leave voluntarily, but was "effectively evicted" from the USGS group.^[22]

The Science article "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus" appeared in the June 3, 2011 print version of Science;^[23] it had remained on the "Publication ahead of print" ScienceXpress page for six months after acceptance for publication.^[24]

Awarded fellowships and funding

In 2006 Wolfe-Simon was awarded a National Science Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship ^[25] to support work done at Harvard University and Arizona State University. In 2010, she received a Kavli Fellowship from the United States National Academy of Sciences. Wolfe-Simon is currently a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow.

Publications

• F. Wolfe, K. Kroeger and I. Valiela (1999). Increased lability of estuarine dissolved organic nitrogen from urbanized watersheds. Biological Bulletin. 197:290-292.
• Wolfe-Simon F., Grzebyk D., Schofield O., Falkowski P. G. (2005). "The role and evolution of superoxide dismutase in algae". Journal of Phycology 41 (3): 453–465. doi:10.1111/j.1529-8817.2005.00086.x. 
• F. Wolfe-Simon (2006). The Role and Evolution of Superoxide Dismutases in Algae. Ph.D. Thesis. Rutgers Graduate Program in Oceanography.
• Wolfe-Simon F., Starovoytov V., Reinfelder J.R., Schofield O., Falkowski P. G. (2006). "Localization and role of manganese superoxide dismutase in a marine diatom". Plant Physiology 142 (4): 1701–1709. doi:10.1104/pp.106.088963. PMC 1676035. PMID 17056755. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1676035. 
• Davies P.C.W., Benner S.A., Cleland C.E., Lineweaver C.H., McKay C.P., Wolfe-Simon F. (2009). "Signatures of a Shadow Biosphere". Astrobiology 9 (2): 241–249. Bibcode 2009AsBio...9..241D. doi:10.1089/ast.2008.0251. PMID 19292603. 
• J.B. Glass, F. Wolfe-Simon, and A.D. Anbar (2009). Coevolution of marine metal availability and nitrogen assimilation in cyanobacteria and algae. Geobiology. 7: 100-123.
• F. Wolfe-Simon, P.C.W. Davies and A.D. Anbar (2009). Did nature also choose Arsenic? International Journal of Astrobiology. 8: 69-74.
• R.S. Oremland, C.W. Saltikov, F. Wolfe-Simon, and J.F. Stolz (2009). Arsenic in the evolution of Earth and extraterrestrial ecosystems. Geomicrobiology Journal. 26: 522 - 536.
• Johnston D.T., Wolfe-Simon F., Pearson A., Knoll A.H. (2009). "Anoxygenic photosynthesis modulated Proterozoic oxygen and sustained Earth's middle age". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (40): 16925–16929. Bibcode 2009PNAS..10616925J. doi:10.1073/pnas.0909248106. PMC 2753640. PMID 19805080. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2753640. 
• J.B. Glass, F. Wolfe-Simon, J.J. Elser and A.D. Anbar (2010). Molybdenum-nitrogen colimitation in heterocystous cyanobacteria. Limnology and Oceanography. 55: 667-676.
• Chauhan D, Folea IM, Jolley CC, et al. (February 2011). "A Novel Photosynthetic Strategy for Adaptation to Low-Iron Aquatic Environments". Biochemistry 50 (5): 686–692. doi:10.1021/bi1009425. PMID 20942381. 
• Felisa Wolfe-Simon, Jodi Switzer Blum, Thomas R. Kulp, Gwyneth W. Gordon, Shelley E. Hoeft, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, John F. Stolz, Samuel M. Webb, Peter K. Weber, Paul C. W. Davies, Ariel D. Anbar and Ronald S. Oremland (2010). "A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus". Science 332 (6034): 1163–6. Bibcode 2011Sci...332.1163W. doi:10.1126/science.1197258. PMID 21127214. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/12/01/science.1197258. 
• Wolfe-Simon, Felisa; Blum; Kulp, Thomas R.; Gordon, Gwyneth W.; Hoeft, Shelley E.; Pett-Ridge, Jennifer; Stolz, John F.; Webb, Samuel M. et al. (27 May 2011). "Response to Comments on "A Bacterium That Can Grow Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus"" (PDF). Science. Bibcode 2011Sci...332.1149W. doi:10.1126/science.1202098. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/05/26/science.1202098.full.pdf. Retrieved 30 May 2011. 

See also

• Prebiotic arsenic
• Hypothetical types of biochemistry

References

External links

• Official website
• Labyrint on Astrobiology. Dutch science documentary featuring Wolfe-Simon. six-minute segment with Wolfe-Simon.
• NASA-funded research discovers life built with toxic chemical one-hour press conference on NASA TV 2010-12-02, with Wolfe-Simon, Mary Voytek, Steven A. Benner, Pamela Conrad and James Elser

Persondata
Name	Wolfe-Simon, Felisa
Alternative names
Short description	American geomicrobiologist
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death