From the Labs
Houston, Texas
Volume 7, Issue 9
November 2008

Briefs

Zoghbi named to hall of fame

Huda Zoghbi, M.D., professor of pediatrics, molecular and human genetics, neurology and neuroscience, was one of five honorees for the 2008 Texas Women's Hall of Fame.

The Governor's Commission for Women established the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1984 to honor the state's most accomplished women. The biennial awards ceremony recognizes the achievements of women who are nominated by Texas residents and selected by a bi-partisan, independent panel of judges.

Zoghbi, also investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was selected in the category of health research for her more than 20 years of research on genes that cause the brain to develop and function properly.

Naik awarded for diabetes research

Aanand Naik, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and a member of the Health Decision-Making and Communication Program at the DeBakey VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, is one of 20 recipients of the 2008 Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

This program provides grants to junior physician-scientists to facilitate their transition to independent clinical research careers. Naik will conduct a randomized controlled trial of a diabetes group clinic intervention compared with enhanced usual care to determine if collaborative goal-setting can enhance doctor-patient communication and decision making in diabetes cases.

BCM named Epigenomics data center

BCM has been designated the Epigenomics Data Analysis and Coordination Center for a five-year, $190 million NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program. The data center will operate under the direction of Aleksandar Milosavljevic, M.D., associate professor of molecular and human genetics, and Arthur Beaudet, M.D., chair of the same department.

The rationale behind the program is that health and disease susceptibility result from factors other than gene sequence. The factors external to the genetic blueprint affect how genes are expressed and regulated. The hypothesis is that these epigenetic factors control differentiation of stem cells and the formation of organs and contribute to the way the body responds to stimuli that can result in disease. The grant will provide an informatics and analysis resource to integrate all components and provide the infrastructure for the generation of the reference epigenome maps.

Brown receives breast cancer grant

A $7 million, five-year promise grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation will help Powel Brown, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at BCM, use the tools of genomics and proteomics to develop effective therapies for estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer.

The grant is one of $100 million in grants from Komen to 81 institutions worldwide. Brown and his collaborators will study changes in breast tumors at the DNA, RNA and the protein level. Understanding whether certain breast cancer gain or lose gene function, or if certain proteins exist at high levels, will help them determine where to intervene to stop cancer at the cellular level.