Nadine Samara

A Passion for Pure Science

Believe it or not, when Nadine Samara was an IB student at ACS, chemistry was not her best subject. “I loved it, but I really struggled with it,” she recollects. How, then, did she end up as the Head of the Structural Biochemistry Unit at one of the world’s most prestigious research organizations? The story of that journey tells you a lot about Nadine – her natural curiosity, her love of pure science, and her appetite for intellectual challenges. It also illustrates how mentors can impact our life trajectories.

Like many Lebanese of her generation, she spent the civil war years outside the country. Born in the United States, she grew up in Saudi Arabia and returned to Lebanon in the mid-nineties for high school. Her timing was perfect. ACS had just established the IB Program in 1995 and constructed new science labs. Nadine quickly became, in her words, “intrigued by chemistry.” To her, it was the ultimate intellectual puzzle. At first, she struggled with the class. “Luckily I had the best chemistry teacher, Dania Maaliki. She was tough, but she never gave up on me, even when I did poorly on a test.” Thanks to Ms. Maaliki’s support and Nadine’s determination, she persevered and eventually majored in chemistry at AUB.

Left: Nadine, third from left, with friends at ACS. Right: Nadine’s graduation from ACS in 1998.

Nadine returned to the United States for graduate study at Rutgers University, but it was her curiosity about a seminar on structural biology and crystallography that changed the course of her career. "The seminar was my first exposure to an X-Ray Crystal Structure, in this instance, a protein bound to DNA. Sitting enthralled in that seminar room, it dawned on me that I would continue to study chemistry, but in a way that excited and challenged me. I would become a structural biochemist." 

Nadine kept her promise to herself. She took a research position at Princeton and then earned her PhD in Molecular Biophysics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She held coveted post-doctoral (post-doc) and staff scientist positions at the NIH, but her big break came in 2018. She applied for a tenure-track position through the Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator Program and was selected as a principal investigator after a competitive interview process. Now she runs her own structural biochemistry lab, focusing on enzymes (specialized proteins) that modify other molecules with sugars.

Nadine in her lab with post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Pranav Kumar.

Nadine explains that she is interested in understanding mechanisms. “How do cells make things? What genes are involved? This is foundational science; it teaches us how cells function at the atomic level.” To accomplish this, Nadine’s lab grows protein crystals and shoots X-Rays at them to obtain high-resolution data or freezes proteins on grids to obtain Cryo-EM data. This enables Nadine and her team to ascertain where each atom is positioned within a molecule and how it interacts with other atoms. The resulting information can then be used to design drugs that inhibit behaviors or interactions that lead to disease. Her lab complements these studies with immunological, microbiological, biochemical, and bioinformatic studies, and collaborates with other labs at NIH and around the world to test hypotheses in pathogens and animals. For instance, after her lab published the structure of the enzyme TxgGalNAc-T3 from Toxoplasma Gondii, the pathogen that causes toxoplasmosis, they began collaborating with another group to design inhibitors of this enzyme to help target chronic infections.

A structural model of TxgGalNAc-T3, involved in glycosylation of proteins from Toxoplasma Gondii. This structure showed us how pathogenic GalNAc-Ts differ from human GalNAc-Ts, and tells us how we can specifically target them.

A driving force behind Nadine’s success is, no doubt, her own perseverance and intellectual curiosity, but she also credits some incredible mentors along the way. Besides Ms. Maaliki, her high school chemistry teacher, she singles out her Johns Hopkins Graduate Mentor, Dr. Cynthia Wolberger. “She exemplified work-life balance by raising two kids while being extremely successful in her career as a structural biologist. She is currently a member of the National Academies of Science. Beyond that, she found the time to promote my independence by allowing me to explore various projects in her lab. Dr. Lawrence Tabak mentored me when I joined his NIH lab as a staff scientist. He was supportive in every possible way. He made sure I was ready for interviews, gave me corresponding authorship, and even extended his tenure when I was pregnant so that I could continue to work.”

Nadine, center, enjoys lunch and conversation with members of her team: three post-docs, a post-bac, a technician, and a summer student.

Nadine believes in “paying it forward” and has made mentoring her post-baccalaureates (post-bacs), summer students, and post-doc students a priority. “I encourage them to network, ask questions, and attend seminars. I want to help them find their research passion, just as I did.”