The School of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Department of Biochemistry are saddened to share the news that emerita biochemistry professor Ana Jonas passed away on June 12, 2024.

Known for her compassion, curiosity, and drive, Jonas managed a robust research enterprise that advanced our understanding of the role lipoproteins play in cardiovascular disease. During her three decades at Illinois, she mentored countless students and researchers who went on to work in academia and industry throughout the world.

“The field has lost a giant and she will be sorely missed,” said W. Sean Davidson, a former postdoctoral researcher in Jonas’ lab who is now professor and vice chair of research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Jonas managed an internationally respected research program that focused primarily on lipoprotein A-I, which interacts with the plasma membranes of human cells to transport cellular lipids.

“Her studies on the elucidation of the structures of the protein and lipid components of lipoprotein A-I and their interactions with membranes and lipid vesicles were characterized by a high level of biophysical and biochemical rigor,” said John Gerlt, professor emeritus of biochemistry at the University of Illinois.

“The Jonas lab developed a universal method for the reconstitution of HDL-like particles with pure lipid and protein components. These versatile particles are discs of nanometer dimensions, containing a phospholipid bilayer stabilized in water by a helical, peripheral protein ring. Not only have they served as models for HDL, but they also have applications in solubilizing membrane proteins and as potential drug and lipid carriers,” Gerlt said.

Ana Jonas was born in Lithuania and lived in Germany and Argentina before moving to the United States with her parents and siblings in 1962. The salutatorian of her class, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois Chicago in 1966, followed by a move to Urbana to pursue her PhD in biochemistry. At Illinois, she studied under Gregorio Weber, a renowned biochemist who pioneered fluorescent spectroscopy and protein chemistry.

She earned her PhD in 1970 and joined the Illinois faculty after completing her postdoctoral research. She became a full professor of biochemistry in 1985 and had joint appointments in the College of Medicine and School of Chemical Sciences.

With the late biochemistry professor Charles Matz, Dr. Jonas figured out how to generate highly pure HDL particles in the test tube (called reconstituted HDL) and this technique is still used by many laboratories nearly 50 years later.

“Her work showed how HDL particles may change size with different types and amounts of phospholipid in them,” Davidson said. “She also pioneered our understanding of how LCAT [a lipoprotein-associated enzyme] interacts with HDL. LCAT is stimulated dramatically by apolipoprotein A1 and she developed many new assays and laid the foundation for understanding how LCAT works at the HDL interface.”

Her reviews and papers are still cited today on these subjects.

“I have known and admired Ana Jonas since she was a student in a graduate seminar class that was my first assignment as a new assistant professor at Illinois in 1969,” said Robert Switzer, Professor Emeritus and former head of the Department of Biochemistry. “She performed with quiet high competence, which was characteristic of everything that Ana Jonas did.”

“When she joined the biochemistry faculty, jointly appointed in the UI College of Medicine, Urbana campus, she wisely began a study of important lipoproteins that circulate in the blood, long before such terms as HDL and LDL were widely used,” Switzer said. “She characterized their composition and structure and the biochemistry of their metabolism, which are crucial for understanding diseases such as atherosclerosis. Her work on synthetic lipoproteins laid the experimental foundation for Steve Sligar’s research on nanodiscs.”

Switzer called her a “splendid colleague, a fine teacher, an excellent research mentor, and always cheerfully willing to take on administrative and committee tasks needed for a department to function smoothly. She was respected and revered by her students and colleagues and is remembered fondly.”  

“I met Ana Jonas in 1989, as a non-traditional student, forty years old, going back to school to begin a new career in biomedical research,” said Diane Durbin, who worked in the Jonas lab as an undergraduate, PhD student, and postdoc until 2000, when she left to work at Abbott Laboratories. “Ana was five years older than me, and this similarity in age helped establish a bond that was closer than most professors to students. Over the years, Ana shared with me, woman to woman, what it was like to be a female working in a field dominated by males. She provided encouragement and guidance to me, was always professional, yet warm and accessible.”

“Dr. Jonas was not only a prominent scientist, as evidenced by her more than 120 publications in scientific journals, she was also an excellent communicator and writer,” Durbin said.

“She served on the advisory board of various scientific organizations, and she recognized that students who were entering the field of scientific research needed training in technical writing and interpreting the primary scientific literature. To address this need, she started and taught the first technical writing class offered by the biochemistry department.”

“I have marveled – and still do – at her apparent ease in identifying research questions, writing manuscripts, and running her research lab,” said Lihua Jin, a postdoctoral researcher in the Jonas lab from 1995 to 1999. “I deeply admire her ability to write manuscripts that require minimal editing, often crafted with pen and paper. I can still vividly picture her beautiful handwriting as if it were yesterday. Dr. Jonas’ guidance, grace, and generosity towards me have profoundly shaped me and supported my pursuit of an academic career. She has been a role model I have always looked up to and strive to emulate. She will live on in my memory and through my work as an academic,” said Jin, who is now a professor at DePaul University’s College of Science and Health.

Alejandra Tricerri, a postdoctoral fellow from 1998 to 2001 in the Jonas lab, came to the U.S. after obtaining her PhD in her native Argentina. Jonas not only provided her with guidance on scientific endeavors, but also with becoming proficient in the English language.

“She was patient and supportive, and her humble personality made us feel at ease. She was always rigorous but open-minded to opinions and debates and ideas from members of her research group. She allowed us to grow, and she supported our opportunities to attend scientific meetings, take courses or design research projects that would enable our intellectual growth,” said Tricerri, now a professor at Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina.

Durbin agreed, saying, “Dr. Jonas recognized the importance of networking, and provided the opportunity and funds for her grad students and postdocs to attend conferences in our field of study. She encouraged collaborations with members of other labs and other universities, and she introduced her grad students and postdocs to others prominent in the field of lipid research when we attended conferences with her.”

During her career at the University of Illinois, she was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (AHA), a Fogarty International Fellow, Chair of the 1990 Gordon Research Conference on Lipid Metabolism, Pfizer Travelling Fellow of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, and recipient of the Lyman Duff Lectureship Award of the AHA. Dr. Jonas served on and chaired numerous professional research review committees for the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association’s Council on Arteriosclerosis, and the Journal of Lipid Research.

She was awarded many honors, most recently, the Jack Oram Lifetime Achievement Award for HDL research. The award was presented to her earlier this year at the Annual HDL Workshop in Chicago, an event Davidson attended.

“From a personal point of view, Ana was not just a fantastic scientific mentor to me, but she was also a great example of how one could do cutting edge science, but also enjoy one’s life,” Davidson said. “Her demonstration of how to have a healthy work/life balance made a huge impression on me and I credit those lessons with the successes that I have been able to have in my own career,” he added.

“Dr. Jonas promoted comradery and collaboration among her lab members, Durbin said. She recognized the value of bonding and frequently took the entire lab to Timpone’s for lunch, and she also cohosted, with husband Jiri Jonas, lab members at Christmas time. “Being in her lab was like being part of a large family,” Durbin said.

“She was an intelligent scientist, an inspiring teacher, a highly organized and pragmatic advisor, and a generous, warm and gracious woman, but one who could be tough as nails when necessary.  Those of us from her lab who knew her well are indebted to her for her help in advancing our careers as scientists, as well as for being the inspiration to help us grow to be well-rounded and caring, compassionate individuals.”

Jonas shared a zest for adventure and spending time outdoors with her husband, Jiri Jonas, an emeritus professor of chemistry and former director of the Beckman institute. They married in 1968 and lived in Champaign-Urbana until 2001, when they retired and moved to Naples, Florida. The couple pursued many activities together such as skiing, windsurfing, and hiking. In addition, Jonas was a formidable tennis player and enjoyed birding.

Together, the Jonases were longtime supporters of the University of Illinois and provided funding for scholarships, fellowships and faculty in biochemistry, chemistry, and medicine.