Annual DeBakey research awards announced

HOUSTON -- (January 14, 2009) -- Four Baylor College of Medicine researchers are the 2008 recipients of the Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Awards.

These awards recognize significant and outstanding research accomplishments by scientists at BCM. The recipients present their work during a seminar at which they receive an Excellence in Research medallion. The award also includes an unrestricted fund to support their research programs.

This year's recipients are Dr. N. Tony Eissa, professor of medicine-pulmonary; Dr. Jianpeng Ma, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Dr. Scott Pletcher, associate professor of molecular and human genetics; and Dr. Thomas Zwaka, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology.

Eissa's research focuses on the process of elimination of pathogens by autophagy (an immune process that allows cells to digest parts of themselves when starved or to degrade invading bacteria or viruses) and the regulation of the synthesis of nitric oxide (an important signaling molecule) by an enzyme called inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS).

Ma's work explores the field of biomolecular X-ray crystallography, developing new ways of elucidating the structure and activity of large biological molecules. X-ray crystallography, a technique in which protein crystals are bombarded with X-rays, producing a diffraction pattern that reveals the precise three-dimensional arrangement of every atom in the molecule, provides a basis for his work, which then builds on that structure using elegant mathematical algorithms that help describe the how the structure bends and moves while it achieves its purpose.

Pletcher's research focuses on identifying and investigating the genetic mechanisms that affect aging and age-related disease in humans. To do this he uses the fruit fly, in which many of these mechanisms also exist. Pletcher is currently studying genes that link diet, obesity and immune function with aging and aging-related disease.

Zwaka's research led to the discovery that caspases, a family of enzymes that degrade proteins and play an essential role in programmed cell death, are also involved in early differentiation. This work paved the way for the discovery of an independent pathway for pluripotency, the potential of a stem cell to differentiate into almost any kind of tissue.

The awards are sponsored by the DeBakey Medical Foundation.