2009 Life Sciences Jury
Jury Chair
Prof. Inder Verma
Prof. Inder Verma is the American Cancer Society Professor and the first incumbent of the Irwin Mark Jacobs Chair in Exemplary Life Sciences, in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
One of the world's leading authorities on the development of viruses for gene therapy vectors, Dr. Verma uses genetically engineered viruses to insert new genes into cells that can then be returned to the body, where they produce the essential protein whose absence causes disease. He has also been conferred the NIH Outstanding Investigator Award (1988). Dr. Verma is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (US), Institute of Medicine, American Academy for Arts & Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Third World Academy of Sciences and a foreign associate of the Indian National Academy of Sciences. The Vilcek Foundation named Dr. Verma as the recipient of its 2008 prize in biomedical science. Dr. Verma is also the recipient of 2010 Spector Prize awarded by Columbia University and 22nd Annual Cancer Research Award of the Pasarow Foundation.
Jurors
Dr. Rafi Ahmed, Ph.D.
Director, Emory Vaccine Center, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Emory University School of Medicine
Dr. Ahmed holds the title of Georgia Research Alliance Scholar in Vaccine Research and is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Emory University School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His research efforts are directed towards understanding the mechanisms of immunological memory and using this knowledge to develop new and more effective vaccines. Dr. Ahmed and his colleagues have made significant discoveries about how immune memory cells are created and how long they survive - crucial information for the development of vaccines for HIV and other infectious agents. Most recently his work has focused on rejuvenating the immune response to chronic viral infections. Dr. Ahmed was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Roger N. Beachy
President - Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Dr. Roger Beachy is the founding president of the not-for-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Beachy is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and in 2001 received the Wolf Prize in Agriculture. He is a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Science, India, and Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr Beachy was awarded the Dennis Robert Hoagland Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, the Ruth Allen Award from the American Phytopathological Society, and was the 1991 recipient of the Bank of Delaware's Commonwealth Award for Science and Industry. Research in Dr. Beachy's work in plant molecular biology, virology and biotechnology includes developing genetically enhanced crops with resistance to plant virus diseases.
Dr. Vishva Dixit
Vice President, Research - Molecular Oncology at Genentech
Dr. Vishva Dixit is responsible for overseeing Genentech's research programs focused on understanding the biology of cancer, discovering novel oncology therapeutics and moving projects into the drug development pipeline. Dr. Dixit joined Genentech in 1997 as the director of the Molecular Oncology department. He was promoted to Vice President of Molecular Oncology in 2000. He is a recipient of the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Award in Experimental Pathology (1996) and the American Heart Association Established Investigatorship Award (1989-1994).
Prof. Thomas M. Jessell
Claire Tow Professor - Departments of Neuroscience, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Prof. Jessell has carried out pioneering research on the genetic control of neuronal differentiation, the mechanisms that specify neuronal identity, the growth of axonal projections and the establishment of synaptic connections between nerve cells. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His awards include the Bristol Myers Squibb Neuroscience Award, the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, the Ameritec Foundation Prize and the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience.
Prof. John Kuriyan
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley and Member, National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Kuriyan is also Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Juniata College, Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked with Gregory Petsko and Martin Karplus (Harvard University) on the dynamics of proteins. Dr. Kuriyan was appointed as an Assistant Professor at The Rockefeller University, New York in 1987, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1990. Dr. Kuriyan moved to the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kuriyan is interested in the construction, mechanism, and regulation of the molecular machines and switching devices that carry out signal transduction and DNA replication.
Categories
Archives
