Pharmacology News
June 2008
Congratulations to pharmacology graduate student Darcy Flora, who has been awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association. Darcy’s project is titled “Mechanisms of Downregulation of Natriuretic Peptide Receptor-A.” Dr. Lincoln Potter is Darcy’s advisor.
BEATRICE Z. MILNE AND THEODORE BRANDENBURG
AWARD
2008 RECIPIENTS
The Beatrice Z. Milne and Theodore Brandenburg Award recognizes exceptional
research by graduate students in the basic biomedical sciences. The award reflects the
thoughtfulness and generosity of Ms. Beatrice Z. Milne and serves as a lasting
expression of her commitment to improving the health of the people of Minnesota, the
nation, and the world. The award is given annually to currently enrolled graduate
students in one of the following graduate programs: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology &
Biophysics (BMBB), Cellular and Integrative Physiology, Microbiology, Immunology &
Cancer Biology (MICaB), Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology & Genetics
(MCDB&G), Neuroscience, and Pharmacology.
The University of Minnesota Medical School, Minnesota Medical Foundation, and the
Directors of Graduate Studies Council are pleased to announce the 2008 recipients of
the Beatrice Z. Milne and Theodore Brandenburg Award:
Garret R. Anderson
Andrea R. Daniel
Steve Davidson
Nien-Pei Tsai
Petter Woll
Each recipient will be honored at the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Programs
Research Recognition Day on Tuesday, May, 27, from 1:00 to 6:00 PM in the
McNamara Alumni Center. In addition to receiving a cash award of $6,000, each
recipient will give an oral presentation on their research and present a research poster.
Additional information on the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Programs Research
Recognition Day is available at
http://www.orbs.umn.edu/orbs/gradresearchday/home.html
March 2008
Dr. Kevin Wickman was selected by the Medical School-MMF Honors and Awards Committee to receive a 2008 Outstanding Medical School Teacher Award. This award recognizes faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the education of physicians and medical students.
March 2008
Jana Ninkovic won the prestigious Arthur Falek Young Investigator Award for the best pre-doctoral poster at the 14th Conference of Society of NeuroImmune Pharmacology in Charleston, SC.
March 2008
Congratulations to our graduate student Nien-Pei Tsai, who has been selected as the sole recipient of the 2008 Veneziale-Steer Award by the Medical School and MMF. This award is presented for outstanding basic scientific research in the field of cellular growth regulation by a graduate student at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
February 2008
A special committee has selected ANDREA DANIEL as the recipient of the 2008 Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology. We offer our congratulations and best wishes as we recognize her for this special honor and distinction.
Dr. Kirill Martemyanov honored with a 2008-2010 McKnight Land-Grant Professorship.
The goal of the program is to advance the careers of our most promising junior faculty at a critical point in their professional lives. Recipients are honored with the title McKnight Land-Grant Professor, a special award they will hold for two years. The award consists of a research grant in each of two years, summer support, and a research leave in the second year.
The winners were chosen for their potential for important contribution to their field; the degree to which their achievements and ideas demonstrate originality, imagination, and innovation; the significance of their research; and the potential for attracting outstanding students.
Dr. Horace Loh receives the 2007 International Narcotics Research Conference (INRC) Founders Lecture Award.
The INRC is dedicated to the advancement of science related to opioid drug dependence and treatment, among other aspects of opioid research, by providing an international forum for information exchange among interested scientists from different disciplines.
The lecture award honors individuals who have made a sustained and substantial contribution to opioid research. The term “Founder” is used to honor the scientfici integrity and vision of the INRC’s founders, as well as to recognize that the award recipients are founders in the sense that they have helped create the intellectual foundation of the current thinking in this field.
On July 10, 2007, Dr. Loh was presented with the award and gave the Founder's Award Lecture in Berlin, Germany. His lecture was titled “Our search for the ‘ideal analgesic’ in pain treatment.”
March 2007: New Cancer Center director, Dr. Douglas Yee
Distinguished University of Minnesota breast cancer expert Douglas Yee has accepted the position of Cancer Center director. He will assume his duties March 12. Yee earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago and trained at the University of North Carolina and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda. Prior to coming to the U in 1999, Yee held faculty positions at Georgetown University Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Founding director John Kersey will continue his research as the holder of the Children’s Cancer Research Fund Land Grant Chair in Pediatric Oncology.
2007 BACANER RESEARCH AWARD IN PHARMACOLOGY
Michael Boulware has been chosen to receive the
2007 Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology. We offer our congratulations
and best wishes as we recognize him for this special honor and
distinction.
The Bacaner Research Award in the Basic Medical Sciences
is sponsored by the Minnesota Medical Foundation to encourage intellectual
achievement by graduate students, and is underwritten by a gift
to the Foundation in memory of Jacob and Minnie Bacaner. Students
in our department are selected for this award by the Graduate Committee
on the basis of research conducted for the Ph.D. degree. This award
recognizes creative research and is offered annually to graduate
students in Biochemistry Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB),
Genetics Cell Biology and Development (GCD), Microbiology Immunology
and Cancer Biology (MICaB), Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Physiology.
Prof. George Wilcox has been named the 2007 recipient of the
American Pain Society's Frederick W. L. Kerr Basic Science Research Award.
This honor will be conferred at the APS National meeting next May in
Washington D.C. He will be the twenty-first recipient since the initiation
of the award in 1987. This is the highest career achievement award for basic
research in pain.
The F.W.L. Kerr Memorial Award recognizes individual excellence and
achievements in pain research, and is presented to a pain professional whose
total career achievements have made outstanding contributions to the field.
George is being recognized for his 27 years of scientific achievement in
the area of spinal mechanisms of pain and analgesia, for leadership in the
society, and for excellence in educating pain scientists and professionals.
2006 BACANER RESEARCH AWARD IN PHARMACOLOGY
Jennifer Kelschenbach has been chosen to receive the
2006 Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology. We offer our congratulations
and best wishes as we recognize her for this special honor and
distinction.
The Bacaner Research Award in the Basic Medical Sciences
is sponsored by the Minnesota Medical Foundation to encourage intellectual
achievement by graduate students, and is underwritten by a gift
to the Foundation in memory of Jacob and Minnie Bacaner. Students
in our department are selected for this award by the Graduate Committee
on the basis of research conducted for the Ph.D. degree. This award
recognizes creative research and is offered annually to graduate
students in Biochemistry Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB),
Genetics Cell Biology and Development (GCD), Microbiology Immunology
and Cancer Biology (MICaB), Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Physiology.
Pharmacology Welcomes New Faculty Member
Yan Zeng, Ph.D.
Yan Zeng, Ph.D., joined the Department
of Pharmacology as an Assistant Professor in January 2006. Dr.
Zeng was formerly a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Associate
at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from
Washington University at Saint Louis. Visit Dr.
Zeng's web page for more information about his research on the biogenesis and function
of regulatory RNAs.
2005 BACANER RESEARCH AWARD IN PHARMACOLOGY
Cheryl Marker has been chosen to receive the
2005 Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology. We offer our congratulations
and best wishes as we recognize her for this special honor and
distinction.
The Bacaner Research Award in the Basic Medical Sciences
is sponsored by the Minnesota Medical Foundation to encourage intellectual
achievement by graduate students, and is underwritten by a gift
to the Foundation in memory of Jacob and Minnie Bacaner. Students
in our department are selected for this award by the Graduate Committee
on the basis of research conducted for the Ph.D. degree. This award
recognizes creative research and is offered annually to graduate
students in Biochemistry Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB),
Genetics Cell Biology and Development (GCD), Microbiology Immunology
and Cancer Biology (MICaB), Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Physiology.
Pharmacology Welcomes New Faculty Member
Kirill Martemyanov, Ph.D.
Kirill Martemyanov, Ph.D., joined the Department
of Pharmacology as an Assistant Professor in July 2005. Dr. Martemyanov
was formerly an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts
Eye and Ear Infirmary. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology
from the Institute of Protein Research at the Russian Academy of
Sciences in Pushchino. You may read more about Dr. Martemyanov's
research on the regulation of G protein signaling in neurons at
his webpage:
http://www.pharmacology.med.umn.edu/staffmartemyanov.html
AHC Academy for Excellence in Health Research
Dr.
Hon Cheung Lee, Professor of Pharmacology, was recently inducted
into the AHC Academy for Excellence in Health Research. Dr. Lee
accepted this prestigious University honor at The AHC Recognition
of Excellence reception held at the Campus Club on June 16, 2004.
The AHC Academy for Excellence in Research is the
highest recognition of Academic Health Center. Honorees are chosen
for their "many contributions to the quality of the University
of Minnesota through sustained, nationally and internationally-recognized
health-related research in his/her field."
Dr. Lee has been recognized for leading the way in
the study of calcium signaling and for his discovery of two novel
messenger molecules that pioneered investigations on calcium-based
mechanisms in a wide range of physiological functions.
The nominees for this award were evaluated by an
external review committee comprised of highly respected members
of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
For more information, please visit: AHC
Academy for Excellence in Health Research
The other 2004 AHC Academy of Excellence inductees
were Dr. Robert Hebbel (Medicine), Dr. Marc Jenkins (Microbiology)
and Dr. Robert Kane (School of Public Health).
2004 BACANER RESEARCH AWARD IN PHARMACOLOGY
Guilin Wanghas been chosen to receive the
2004 Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology.
The Bacaner Research Award in the Basic Medical Sciences
is sponsored by the Minnesota Medical Foundation to encourage intellectual
achievement by graduate students, and is underwritten by a gift
to the Foundation in memory of Jacob and Minnie Bacaner. Students
in our department are selected for this award by the Graduate Committee
on the basis of research conducted for the Ph.D. degree. This award
recognizes creative research and is offered annually to graduate
students in Biochemistry Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB),
Genetics Cell Biology and Development (GCD), Microbiology Immunology
and Cancer Biology (MICaB), Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Physiology.
McKnight Land-Grant Professorship
Congratulations to Dr.
Johnathan Marchant, who as been awarded a McKnight
Land-Grant Professorship for 2004-2005.
Each year, the University of Minnesota Graduate School
invites departments to nominate their most promising tenure-track
assistant professors who earned their doctorates during the past
seven years and whose appointment at the university began within
the past three years. The McKnight Land-Grant program aims to advance
the careers of promising junior faculty at a crucial period in
their professional lives. Recipients hold the title McKnight Land-Grant
Professor--an endowed chair--for two years. The winners are chosen
according to their potential for important contributions to their
fields; the degree to which their past achievements and current
ideas demonstrate originality, imagination, and innovation; their
potential for attracting outstanding students; and the significance
of their research and their ability to convey their ideas to non-specialists.
Academic Health Center’s Academy for
Excellence in Health Research
Dr.
Horace H. Loh has been selected as one of the
very first inductees into the AHC Academy for Excellence in
Health Research. Dr. Loh accepted this prestigious University
honor at The AHC Recognition of Excellence reception held at
the Campus Club on June 17, 2003.
The AHC Academy for Excellence in Research is the highest recognition of excellence
in AHC faculty research. Honorees are chosen for their "many contributions
to the quality of the University of Minnesota through sustained, nationally
and internationally-recognized health-related research in his/her field".
Dr. Loh was recognized for his contributions to addictive disease research.
The nominees for this award were evaluated by an external review committee
that was comprised of highly respected National Academy of Sciences and Institute
of Medicine members. For more information, please visit: AHC
Academy for Excellence in Health Research
The other 2003 AHC Academy of Excellence inductees were Dr. Jay Cohn (Medicine), Dr.
Ashley Haase (Microbiology) and Dr.
Philip Portoghese (Medicinal Chemistry).
Several faculty members of the Department of Pharmacology
were honored at the AHC Recognition of Excellence Reception on
June 17, 2003 for their recent scholarly achievements:
Dr.
Li-Na Wei - Promoted to the rank of full Professor
Dr. Wei's lab is focused on the study of vitamin A (retinoids) signaling pathways
and the regulation of opioid receptor expression.
Dr.
Kevin Wickman - McKnight Land-Grant Professorship
The McKnight Land-Grant program aims to advance the careers of promising junior
faculty at a crucial period in their professional lives. Recipients hold the
title McKnight Land-Grant Professor--an endowed chair--for two years. The winners
were chosen according to their potential for important contributions to their
fields; the degree to which their past achievements and current ideas demonstrate
originality, imagination, and innovation; their potential for attracting outstanding
students; and the significance of their research and their ability to convey
their ideas to non-specialists. Dr. Wickman's McKnight Land Grant Professor
Research Project is entitled, "From analgesia to addiction: toward a molecular
understanding of drug action."
Dr.
Horace H. Loh - 2002 Nathan B. Eddy Memorial Award Winner
This award is considered one of the highest honors for scientists working in
the field of addiction and drug dependence, and is presented by the College
on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). The CPDD has been in existence since
1929 and is the longest standing group and largest society in the United States
to address problems of drug dependence and abuse both in basic and clinical
areas. Dr. Loh's laboratory continues its long-term investigations into the
molecular neurobiology of opioid actions and addiction.
Dr.
Carolyn Fairbanks - John C. Liebeskind 2003 Early Career Scholar Award
The Liebeskind award recognizes exceptional accomplishment and promise in the
field of pain research. Dr. Fairbanks' research focuses on development of novel
compounds with a pharmacokinetic/dynamic profile ideal for spinal delivery
for pain relief.
2003 BEST DGS AWARD
Dr.
Colin Campbellhas been selected to receive
the 2003 Award for Best Director of Graduate Studies. Please
join us in congratulating Dr. Campbell on a job well done!
The recipients of this award are chosen by a special
Graduate School faculty-student committee. Other recipients of
the 2003 award include Francesca Cuthbert (Conservation Biology),
Norman Dahl (Philosophy) and Marsha Lewis (Nursing). A special
reception and ceremony to honor the Best DGS's was held on May
1st at Walter Library.
2003 BACANER RESEARCH AWARD IN PHARMACOLOGY
Dr. Ping Sun and Ms. Molly Shea have
been chosen co-winners of the 2003 Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology.
The Bacaner Research Award program is sponsored by
the Minnesota Medical Foundation to encourage intellectual achievement
by graduate students, and is underwritten by a gift to the Foundation
in memory of Jacob and Minnie Bacaner. This award recognizes creative
research and is offered annually to graduate students in Biochemistry
Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB), Genetics Cell Biology
and Development (GCD), Microbiology Immunology and Cancer Biology
(MICaB), Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Physiology.
Please join us in congratulating Ping and Molly for
their well-deserved achievements!
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