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FEATURED UCSF ARTIST| NINA'S ARTS NOTES 1st appeared 2 November 1998 "A Wonderful Biomystery" UCSF has long been the scene of amazing advances in biotechnology, reported to the world in densely footnoted scientific journals and books. Now it can be disclosed that the busy labs above Parnassus also harbor the creator of a new biotech genre intended for the unscientific creatures known as General Readers, specifically the readers of mystery novels, among whom I proudly count myself.
But nobody will find B.B. Jordan in any UCSF directory. The cover was blown last summer when it became known that BBJ was the pen name of a real UCSF scientist, Frances M. Brodsky, and that the book grew out of her own fields of study, but in a form she had never before attempted. Science fiction or scifi is something else again. Principal Investigation is in the tradition of P.D. James rather than Ray Bradbury. Its detective/heroine is Celeste Braun, a molecular biologist who teaches at BAU, Bay Area University, and conducts her research in its labs above an avenue called Olympus. So far so true. But when Celeste flies back from consulting trips, she lands at SFO on time, clears customs in a flash, and goes on to give her scheduled lectures with nary a trace of weariness. The book is fiction, after all. How did Frances Brodsky find time to write it? She is the Principal Investigator of one of the Hooper Foundation labs which are headed by UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop. Brodsky's research is primarily in cell biology and immunology. "My lab concentrates on the cell biology of endocytosis," she explains. "That is a very basic cell mechanism for bringing macromolecules into the cell. We're interested in how that's controlled by the cell. It has relevance to many things including how the immune system deals with antigens that come into the system, which then has relevance to vaccination strategy, and it also has relevance to delivering macromolecular therapy to tumor cells and understanding how cells are activated. It's a very fundamental cellular process that we study at a fundamental level but the implications of what we find out are widespread." Brodsky has been at UCSF for eleven years. "It's been a wonderful time here," she says. "It's a great place and I love it." Earlier, she trained at Oxford and spent two years as a postdoc fellow at Stanford and another four years in private industry setting up a basic research lab. She now holds a joint appointment as professor in the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine. In addition to their students, she teaches PhD candidates in cell biology, immunology, and pharmaceutical chemistry, and medical residents who are studying transplantation and renal physiology. One day in her lab, one of her postdocs gave her a rubber stamp which printed her name followed by the letters P.I. It was intended to speed up paperwork but those letters for Principal Investigator can also mean Private Eye and that lit up an idea in Brodsky's mind. She had always been a mystery novel reader and now suddenly she thought she might be able to write about science the way Dick Francis writes suspense stories about horse racing or Jane Langton's Homer Kelly explores Florence while solving a murder or two.
By pure coincidence, a published mystery writer, Jon A. Jackson, lived nearby and agreed to read her chapters, giving her valuable advice. After a good deal of rewriting, Brodsky found an agent and, after quite a few rejections and more rewriting, a publisher. When you think about it, the careful observation, deductive thinking, consistent effort, and imaginative leaps that go into the making of a successful scientist are also among the tools of a fiction writer. But few if any scientists of Brodsky's stature have gone off into the wilderness and used those qualities to produce mystery fiction. Her next book, Secondary Immunization, is almost finished; it was also written in that beautiful Montana mountain valley. "Fiction writing has made my scientific writing better and a lot more fun," says Brodsky, who was a bit surprised when colleagues who read her book were convinced that it was written by a man. She'll continue to use that nom de plume and reviewers may well continue to praise her "gripping plot" and "great insights into how the hottest science is done," as well as describe her thus: "B.B. Jordan is a dazzler." A Reminder: Don't miss this week's chance to hear glorious music at noontime as the Chancellor's Concert series continues on Thursday, November 5th, in Cole Hall. Admission free.
Schubert wrote an astonishing amount of music in a wide variety of forms, including some of the most beautiful melodies ever created, in a life that lasted only 31 years, from 1797 to 1828. John Chernoff is a graduate of the SF Conservatory of Music where he currently serves as staff accompanist. He is an accomplished chamber music player as well as keyboard soloist. * * * * * UCSF Orchestra Under a New Baton More glorious music when Stephen Paulson makes his debut conducting our own symphony orchestra made up of UCSF colleagues who are also very able musicians. Paulson has selected a varied program from three centuries: music by Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Samuel Barber to be played at the UCSF Orchestra's fall concerts on November 14 and 15. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), considered by many the greatest composer who ever lived, wrote six concertos for the Margrave of Brandenburg, which demonstrate the excellence of instrumental playing at the time and are always challenges to modern musicians. The Orchestra will play the first of these lilting, high-spirited works. American composer Samuel Barber, born in l910, wrote symphonies, concertos, operas, and many stunningly lovely songs but his music did not become widely popular until after his death in l981. His Adagio for Strings, starting softly and soaring to heavenly heights, as you will hear at this UCSF concert, has become one of his most beloved pieces. Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is considered Russia's first full-fledged professional composer. Two of his operas, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades are fairly frequently performed as are his last two symphonies, especially the sixth, the PathŽtique. For these UCSF Orchestra concerts, Paulson has programmed Tchaikowsky's Fourth Symphony in F-minor, written in 1878, in which his gift for songlike melody and some of his richest orchestration can be enjoyed. You'll have two chances to hear these concerts: Saturday,
November 14 at 8 p.m. in St. Gregory's Nyssen Episcopal Church at 500 De Haro Street,
between 17th and 18th Streets, and on Sunday, November 15 at 2 p.m. in the Millberry
Gymnasium on the Parnassus campus. A San Francisco resident for 20 years, Nina Beckwith is a longtime arts writer and music critic and a former Time magazine overseas correspondent. She was founding editor of the UC Berkeley Library newsletter Bene Legere and worked for six years with the late Dr. Peter Ostwald, Director of the UCSF Health Program for Performing Artists. |
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The author of the first UCSF biomystery,
B.B. Jordan, has no objection if scientists, too, wish to read the book. It is called Principal
Investigation, subtitled A Scientific Mystery, published in paperback by
Berkley. Scientists will find its data and diagrams accurate; GRs will find the book
absorbing, its scientific quest clearly understandable, mixed with international intrigue,
good storytelling, suspense, and sex.
Brodsky drafted a book proposal, which got turned
down. Her first sabbatical year was coming up, and she decided to rent a cottage in a
Montana wildlife refuge and go all out on her idea. Cottages in Montana seem be hideouts
of some curious characters these days but in this case there was a government lab nearby
which Brodsky had previously visited. She wrote eight chapters in four days.