Immunology:
Mobilizing Cytokine Receptor Key Step in Defense Coordination
Psychiatry:
Studies Give Boost to Therapies for Depression
Cell Biology:
Chemical Genetics Identifies New Way of Disrupting Cell's Protein Recycling System
Awards
Systems Bio Recruit Takes MacArthur Award
New Books:
The Fall Bookshelf
Structure Reveals Binding of Platelet Integrin
Eosinophils Play Role in Chronic Allergic Asthma
Complement Linked to Tissue Damage in Diabetes
Cell Death Proteins Counter Chemo Resistance
Commission Reports Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Professions
Applications Requested for 2005 Alzheimer's Research Pilot Grants
Science in the News Opens Fall Series
Fourth Annual Albright Symposium
Appointments to Full and Named Professorships
Honors and Advances
In Memoriam:
George Thorn
John Badwey
Howard Frank
Margaret Brenman-Gibson
Kenneth Herman
John Richard Gaintner
HMI and International Partners Combat HIV/AIDS Through Education
Systems Bio Recruit Takes MacArthur Award
A MacArthur Fellowship has been awarded to Vamsi Mootha, HMS assistant professor of systems biology and of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. The $500,000 "genius" grant, announced Sept. 28 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is a five-year, no-strings-attached award. Twenty-three grants were given for 2004, but there is no application or interviewing procedure--instead, candidates are nominated, evaluated, and selected through a confidential process. Fellows are selected for their originality, creativity, and potential.
Vamsi Mootha has won a MacArthur "genius" grant for work in computational strategies toward genomics. (Photo courtesy of the MacArtur Foundation)
Mootha, a clinician-researcher, is developing experimental and computational strategies to integrate genomic, proteomic, and microarray data to accelerate human disease-gene discovery. Recently, he and colleagues isolated peptide fragments from mitochondria and identified them with mass spectroscopy. By comparing the protein fingerprints with gene expression databases, more than 100 previously unknown mitochondrial proteins were identified. He used a similar approach to identify the gene that causes Leigh syndrome, French Canadian variant, a fatal metabolic disease.
"This extraordinary award to one of our new recruits in the Systems Biology Department confirms our selection of Vamsi as a leading young thinker in computational approaches to biological questions," said HMS dean Joseph Martin. "We are all very proud of his achievement."