From the Labs
Houston, Texas
Volume 7, Issue 6
August 2008

Briefs

Weigel earns research award

Nancy Weigel, Ph.D., professor of molecular and cellular biology, was awarded the 2008 Roy O. Greep Award Lecture at ENDO 08, the 90th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

This award is presented annually for outstanding contributions to research in endocrinology. Weigel presented a lecture titled, "Dissecting the Interplay between Cell Signaling and Progesterone Receptor."

Her work has focused primarily on the role of cell signaling in steroid receptor action and the activities of nuclear hormone receptors in prostate cancer. Her research has shown that a derivative of the active form of vitamin D can inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells in mice.

Huda Zoghbi honored

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill named Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D., professor in the departments of pediatrics, molecular and human genetics, neurology, and neuroscience and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as the recipient of the eighth annual Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize.

The Perl Prize carries a $10,000 award and is given to recognize a seminal achievement in neuroscience. Past recipients have included four subsequent winners of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. Zoghbi is being awarded the Perl Prize for her research on the molecular genetics of neurological disorders, especially her 1999 discovery of the gene responsible for Rett Syndrome.

Wu wins Ludwig von Sallmann Prize

Samuel Miao-Sin Wu, M.D., professor of ophthalmology, molecular physiology and biophysics, and neuroscience, has been recognized by the International Society for Eye Research and selected to receive the Ludwig von Sallmann Trust Fund for "distinguishing himself with his significant contribution to vision research and ophthalmology."

Wu, who also holds the Camille and Raymond Hankamer Chair in Ophthalmology, will receive a $30,000 research award at the annual meeting of the ISER in Beijing this fall.

The mission of the ISER is to support, sustain and propagate excellent eye research throughout the world by enhancing international communication and collaboration, providing a forum for dissemination of information among eye researchers, and by developing and sustaining the skills and resources of the eye research community.

Robert Wood Johnson Grant awarded to BCM/DeBakey VAMC

Laura A. Petersen, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the health services research section in the department of medicine and director of HSR&D Center of Excellence at the Michael E. DeBakey VAMC, has received one of 10 grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change.

The grants were awarded to organizations working to eliminate racial and ethnic health care disparities in their communities. Petersen's research will focus on the effectiveness of "pay-for-performance" programs. There is little evidence supporting the effectiveness of these programs in improving the quality of health care, and little is known about whether their effectiveness varies by racial/ethnic group. Her project evaluates whether pay for performance improves the overall level of hypertension care in black patients.