Paula V. Welander

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.

Paula Welander
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Children2
Scientific career
ThesisAnalysis of Methylotrophic Methanogenesis in Methanosarcina Barkeri Fusaro (2007)

Early life and career

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

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

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

References
  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. "Paula V. Welander's Profile | Stanford Profiles". profiles.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  4. "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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