2013 Awardee

John C. Morris, MD - Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Professor of Physical Therapy, and Professor of Occupational Therapy at Washington University in St. Louis. He also is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center; Director of the Memory and Aging Project at Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Morris is an international leader in Alzheimer disease research and is ranked in the top 1% of investigators in the field of Neuroscience and Behavior by Essential Science Indicators database. He has published over 400 scholarly articles and numerous monographs and textbooks.  At Washington University he is Principal Investigator for four multicomponent research grants, awarded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), to study various aspects of Alzheimer disease.   These grants include the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center, which Dr. Morris directs, two program projects, “Healthy Aging and Senile Dementia” and “Antecedent Biomarkers for AD:  The Adult Children Study”;  and a cooperative agreement that establishes an international consortium of leading academic centers, “The Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network” (DIAN).  Dr. Morris directs all of these programs with the overarching goal of identifying Alzheimer disease in its earliest stages, prior to the onset of any symptoms, so that therapies can be initiated to prevent the occurrence of Alzheimer dementia.
 
Dr. Morris chairs the Clinical Task Force for the NIA's Alzheimer Disease Centers program and is a board member for the St. Louis Chapter of the Alzheimer Association. The focus of Dr. Morris' research and practice is Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders associated with aging. Specific research interests include detecting preclinical Alzheimer's disease, improving the diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer's disease, evaluating new drugs for the treatment of dementia, and establishing phenotypes for inherited forms of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

2013 Awardees

Dale Dorsett, Ph.D. - Professor, Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Dr. Dorsett has been called "the godfather of cohesinopathies." His discoveries have steered the course of understanding and potential therapy for this class of human genetic disorders. Dale's pioneering work has advanced knowledge in the fundamental mechanism of gene control during development. His research papers have been cited in thousands of publications, testifying to the impact of his discoveries on modern cell and molecular biology. The impact of his work truly extends from the bench to the clinic.

Samuel Klein, M.D.- William H. Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science; Director, Center for Human Nutrition; Chief, Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science
Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Klein is recognized internationally as a leader in a field of rising critical importance—obesity and metabolic dysfunction. His key contribution is the application and translation of basic metabolic science to humans resulting in important advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of obesity. His work involves the use of both basic and clinical research tools to evaluate the regulation of cellular, regional, and whole-body substrate metabolism to test physiologically and clinically relevant hypotheses in human subjects in vivo. He also leads a group of
investigators conducting trials evaluating different dietary, lifestyle, drug and surgical therapies to reduce body weight and improve metabolic health. Additionally, Sam is committed to mentoring postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty (MD and PhD) and has developed an outstanding environment for young investigators to obtain a comprehensive experience in a variety of aspects of clinical and translational research.

Past Award Recipients: Govindaswamy Chinnadurai, Ph.D. (2012) and Scott J. Hultgren, Ph.D. (2012); Duane Grandgenett, Ph.D. (2011) and Toni Kutchan, Ph.D. (2011); Alan L. Schwartz, Ph.D. (2010); Cheryl S. Asa, Ph.D.(2009) and Gerald Medoff, M.D. (2009); Martin H. Israel, Ph.D. (2008), Kattesh V. Katti, Ph.D. and Robert M. Senior, M.D. (2007); Barbara Schaal, Ph.D. and Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D. (2006); G. Alexander Patterson, M.D. and Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D. (2005); Patricia G. Parker, Ph.D. and Clifford M. Will, Ph.D. (2004); Susan Mackinnon, M.D. and Raymond G. Slavin, M.D. (2003); Carl M. Bender, Ph.D. and Robert E. Ricklefs, Ph.D. (2002); Christopher I. Byrnes, Ph.D. and Dennis W. Choi, M.D., Ph.D. (2001); Allen R. Atkins, Ph.D. and Sarah C. R. Elgin, Ph.D. (2000); Robert B. Belshe, M.D. and Ananthachari Srinivasan, Ph.D. (1999)

2013 Awardees

George Gokel, Ph.D.Distinguished Professor of Science and Director of the Center for Nanoscience at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Dr. Gokel has been a pioneer in the area of synthetic, membrane-active and biologically active compounds, an area now showing considerable vigor. George's accomplishments began with his work in the new field of phase transfer catalysis - involving the development of new reagents, reactions, and mechanistic studies. His development of a class of compounds that he named "lariat ethers" was the first clear demonstration of alkali metal cation-pi interactions. Over the past decade, George's lab has developed a synthetic ion channel and the first completely synthetic anion-selective channel for targeted and enhanced efficacy of drug delivery. Additionally, George has assumed leadership roles in international symposia and journals on supramolecular chemistry.

Gregory Yablonsky, Ph.D. - Associate Research Professor of Chemistry, Parks College, Department of Chemistry at Saint Louis University. Dr. Yablonsky is a world recognized expert in the area of chemical kinetics, catalysis and chemical engineering, particularly in catalytic technology of complete and selective oxidation. Yablonsky's theory of complex steady-state and non-steady state catalytic reactions is used by research teams around the globe. Bridging chemical kinetics and mathematics, Gregory developed a new paradigm for decoding the heterogeneous catalytic reactions based on rigorous relationships between observed reaction behavior and complex reaction mechanism. He also created a theory for the advanced worldwide experimental technique (Temporal Analysis of Products-TAP) developed in St. Louis. Gregory has numerous international designations as Honorary Professor, Fellow, Doctor and Member of prestigious science academies and universities in Belgium, India, China and Russia.

Past Award Recipients: Kevin Depperman (2012) and Stuart A. Solin, Ph.D. (2012);Ettigounder (Samy) Ponnusamy, Ph.D. (2011) and Alexander Rubin, Ph.D. (2011); David A. Fischhoff, Ph.D. (2010) and Stephen R. Padgette, Ph.D. (2010); Ramesh K. Agarwal, Ph.D. (2009); Sherman J. Silber, M.D., F.A.C.S. (2008); Robert B. Horsch, Ph.D. (2006); Krishnan K. Sankaran, Ph.D. (2005); Rudolph N. Yurkovich (2004); Donald P. Ames, Ph.D. (2003); Richard E. Pinckert, Ph.D. and Jonathan S. Turner, Ph.D. (2002); Richard D. Bucholz, M.D. (2001)

2013 Awardees

Angel Baldan, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Member, Center for Cardiovascular Research, Saint Louis University. Baldan began his groundbreaking studies on atherosclerosis as a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA. He showed that mice lacking a protein called ABCG1 develop massive cholesterol and phospholipid deposition in the lung--resembling life-threatening human pulmonary alveolar proteinosis syndrome. This has important implications for the clinical course of lung infections, asthma, allergies and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Since moving to St. Louis, Angel discovered the gene for sterol regulatory element-binding protein SREBP-2 contains within it a second gene for a key regulatory non-coding RNA, called miR-33. This finding uncovered an unexpected mechanism by which intracellular and whole-body cholesterol metabolism are regulated, and showed that miR-33 controls the expression of key transporters for both bile and HDL-cholesterol in the liver.  These findings suggest novel therapeutic approaches to manage patients at risk for cardiovascular disease and provide new insight into statin therapy and improving the effectiveness and safety of cholesterol-lowering medication.

Katherine A. Henzler-Wildman, Ph.D. -Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular BioPhysics, Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Henzler-Wildman has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the role of protein motions in protein function in enzyme catalysis and transport of substrates across a membrane.  Her research shows great promise for advancing our understanding of structure-dynamics-function relationships in the challenging field of membrane proteins as she develops tools for applying high-resolution NMR methods to integral membrane proteins. Katie’s study of the EmrE transporter protein provides the most detailed and direct experimental observation of the dynamics of an active transporter, answering important biological questions regarding symmetry in its structure and function. Katie’s work has shown that high-resolution NMR can successfully by used to measure functionally important motions of integral member proteins, opening the wave for further studies of these challenging systems.  Additionally, Dr. Henzler-Wildman has been the recipient of the prestigious Searle Scholar Award and is to receive the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society in 2013.

Past Award Recipients: Audrey R. Odom, M.D., Ph.D. (2012); Randall J. Bateman, M.D. (2010); Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Ph.D. (2010); Jonathan M. Chase, Ph.D. (2009); Timothy E. Holy, Ph.D. (2009); Sonya Bahar, Ph.D. (2008); Eric C. Leuthardt, M.D. and Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D. (2007); Shelley D. Minteer, Ph.D. (2005); James H. Buckley, Ph.D. (2004); Phyllis I. Hanson, M.D., Ph.D. and James P. McCarter, M.D., Ph.D. (2003); Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D. (2002); Jonathan B. Losos, Ph.D. (2001); Steven F. Dowdy, Ph.D. and Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D. (2000); Laura L. Dugan, M.D. (1999); Scott Hultgren, Ph.D. (1998); James M. Bornholdt, Ph.D. (1997); Alison Goate, Ph.D. and Robert D. Davinroy (1996); Jacob D. Langer, M.D. (1995)