Honors & Other Things |
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October 22, 2013, Volume 60, No. 10 |
2014 Siebel Scholars
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The Wharton School announced the 2014 Siebel Scholars: second-year MBA students Anne King and Martha Kelley. Each received a tuition grant for the 2013-2014 academic year in recognition of their first-year academic achievement and leadership excellence at Wharton.
Ms. King and Ms. Kelley join a community of more than 870 Siebel Scholars, past and present, representing the world’s brightest minds in business, computer science and bioengineering. Founded by the Siebel Foundation, the scholars serve as advisors to the Siebel Foundation and work collaboratively to find solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
Ms. King is pursuing an MBA with a concentration in strategic management and marketing. She plans to work in the non-profit sector post-graduation, focusing on education and health challenges in underserved communities.
Ms. Kelley is focusing her studies on real estate and has a particular interest in urban development. She plans to pursue a career in real estate investing, and ultimately hopes to establish a fund of her own that invests in community-enhancing projects. |
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New Scholar Award: Dr. Fang-Yen
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Dr. Christopher Fang-Yen, Wilf Family Term Assistant Professor in the department of bioengineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is the recipient of the 2013 Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award in Aging for his proposal, “High-throughput Imaging of Lifespan and Healthspan in C. Elegans.” This award is given to exceptional new faculty whose work shows the potential for great impact in understanding lifespan development processes and age-related diseases and disabilities. |
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Schottenstein Laureate: Dr. FitzGerald
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Dr. Garret FitzGerald, professor of medicine and pharmacology; chair of the department of pharmacology; and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the Perelman School of Medicine, is the 2013 recipient of the Jay and Jeanine Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Center.
With the award, the Schottenstein Laureate receives an honorarium of at least $100,000. |
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ASTRO Fellow: Dr. Hahn
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Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, chairman of the department of radiation oncology and Henry K. Pancost Professor of Radiation Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine and Abramson Cancer Center, has been named among the ten 2013 Fellows of the American Society for Radiation Oncology.
ASTRO’s Fellows Program honors radiation oncology leaders who have made substantial contributions to the field of radiation oncology in the areas of research, education, patient care or service and leadership. |
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SWCRF Grants: Drs. Pear and Lemmon
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Two professors from the Perelman School of Medicine received funding from The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) for 2013-2014. Dr. Mark Lemmon, George W. Raiziss Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, along with other researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, are focusing on “HER Family Kinases and Oncogene Addiction in Brain Cancer.” Dr. Warren Pear, Gaylord P. and Mary Louise Harnwell Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, is focusing on “Targeting Tribbles in Cancer.” Funded investigators become part of the Foundation’s unique collaboration, “Institute Without Walls,” and are expected to share their findings at the SWCRF annual Scientific Review. Grants range between $50,000-$150,000. |
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Novartis Lectureship: Dr. Molander
Dr. Gary Molander, Hirschmann-Makineni Professor of Chemistry in SAS, was awarded a 2013-2014 Novartis Lectureship. Novartis, the healthcare products company, awards this lectureship to scientists in recognition of outstanding contributions to organic and computational chemistry, including applications to biology. It is intended to enhance the exposure of Novartis' chemical community to cutting-edge chemistry.
French Legion of Honor: Dr. O’Brien
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Dr. Charles P. O'Brien, the Kenneth Appel Professor in the department of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, received the Medal of Chevalier (Knight) of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor, one of the country's highest honors. He was bestowed the honor because of his personal commitment to French-American relations as symbolized by his exceptional cooperation in science and public health. The partnerships he has established with French research units were described as a blueprint for French-American scientific exchanges. |
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Brilliant 10 List: Dr. Raj
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Popular Science magazine named Dr. Arjun Raj, assistant professor of bioengineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, to its 2013 Brilliant 10 list of young scientists and engineers.
Dr. Raj was recognized for revealing the inner workings of cells. His research interests include molecular engineering, bioengineered therapeutics devices and drug delivery and cellular and molecular imaging. |
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Nobel Prize: Dr. Shiller
Dr. Robert Shiller, former professor of economics in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics with University of Chicago professors Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.” Dr. Shiller was on the University of Pennsylvania faculty from 1974-1982. Currently, he is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University.
For a list of Penn-affiliated Nobel prize winners, see the University Archives web site, www.archives.upenn.edu/people/notables/awards/nobel.html
NSF Grant for ‘Roll-to-Roll’ Graphene Production
Graphene Frontiers, a company developed through the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Technology Transfer, has been awarded a $744,600 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop roll-to-roll production of graphene, the “miracle material” at the heart of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Graphene Frontiers’ technology was developed by Dr. A.T. Charlie Johnson, director of Penn’s Nano/Bio Interface Center and a professor in the department of physics and astronomy in the School of Arts & Sciences, along with Dr. Zhengtang Luo, a former postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Johnson’s lab who is now a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
They founded the company in 2011 through the Center for Technology Transfer’s UPstart program. UPstart serves as a business incubator for technologies developed at the University and connected the researchers with Michael Patterson, then a member of the Wharton Executive MBA program, who is now the company’s CEO.
Graphene, a single-atom-thick layer of carbon, is transparent, conductive, impermeable and exceptionally strong. These properties could be used in high sensitivity chemical detection devices and biosensors, desalination membranes and flexible touchscreens but producing the material in bulk remains a challenge; existing graphene production techniques can only make it in small patches or flakes. Graphene Frontiers’ approach can produce meter-long sheets of the material and does not need to take place in a vacuum, enabling it to be more easily integrated with other industrial processes.
“The new project is to advance the approach to the point where it works like newspaper printing,” said Dr. Johnson, who is also the chair of Graphene Frontiers’ scientific advisory board. “A roll of copper foil goes in to the growth system, and a roll of graphene on a suitable backing comes out. This sort of ‘roll-to-roll’ process would enable large-scale production of graphene with high quality at low cost.”
The NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant will be used to scale Graphene Frontiers’ production capacity.
“Our platform technology will disrupt energy capture/storage, electronics, sensors, wireless communication, water desalination and more. In all of these areas, graphene will allow us to improve performance, lower cost and reduce environmental impact,” Mr.Patterson said.
Muscular Dystrophy Association Grants for Neuromuscular Disease Research
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The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) has awarded research grants totaling over $1 million to three Penn Medicine researchers: Dr. James Shorter, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics; Dr. Hansell Stedman, associate professor of surgery; and Dr. Lee Sweeney, director of the Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy.
The newly awarded funds will help support study in three diverse areas:
Dr. Shorter: There are no effective therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder. In ALS, cytoplasmic protein aggregates accumulate in degenerating motor neurons. In most ALS cases, these aggregates are comprised of the RNA-binding protein, TDP-43. In other cases, they are comprised of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) or another RNA-binding protein called FUS. “We will generate therapeutic disaggregases for ALS based on Hsp104, a protein from yeast. Hsp104 rescues aggregated proteins and restores their function. We hypothesize that hyperactivated Hsp104 variants can be generated with increased disaggregase activity against TDP-43, FUS and SOD1,” said Dr. Shorter.
Dr. Stedman: This new project addresses a critical problem in the development of effective therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and other causally related muscle diseases. “The problem is the immune response to gene transfer in the inflammatory environment of dystrophic muscle,” said Dr. Stedman. Recombinant gene transfer vectors based on the non-pathogenic adeno-associated viruses have shown great promise in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. Attempts to translate this approach to canine disease models and humans have failed, while providing evidence for powerful immune responses to vector-associated antigens. “We will identify targets for transient immunosuppression prior to vector administration, thereby improving the chances for safe and durable therapy for these devastating childhood-onset diseases,” he adds. “Most of the experiments will use dystrophin-deficient mice to further unravel the complex modes of cell-to-cell communication that take place as muscles attempt self-repair after injury.”
Dr. Sweeney: The primary molecular deficiency in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is the dystrophin protein, and the concomitant reduction in cell-surface glycoproteins. The lack of enough dystrophin makes muscle fibers more susceptible to necrosis, but is not well understood. One proposed mechanism involves abnormal calcium shuttling across the cell membrane, which may eventually lead to skeletal muscle weakness. Dr. Sweeney’s lab will look at how to modulate the shuttling of calcium in mouse models of DMD.
This grant is part of $8.4 million awarded by MDA in 31 neuromuscular disease research projects. Many of the grants are multiyear awards to be distributed over several years.
“All of these grants were recommended for funding by the distinguished groups of neuromuscular disease researchers and clinicians voluntarily serving on the MDA Medical and Scientific Advisory Committees,” said Dr. R. Rodney Howell, chairman of the MDA Board of Directors. |
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Related: Golkin Hall Awarded Gold LEED Status For Environmental Design
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