Marsha Moses, the Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston, received the 2013 Honorary Member Award from the Association of Women Surgeons. The award is given to individuals who support the goals and mission of the Association to inspire, encourage, and enable women surgeons to realize their professional and personal goals.
Moses is the director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children’s. Her research focuses on identifying and characterizing the biochemical and molecular mechanisms that underlie the regulation of tumor growth and progression. In addition, Moses has established a proteomics initiative that has led to the discovery of noninvasive urinary cancer biomarkers that can predict disease status and stage in cancer patients.
S. Allen Counter, HMS clinical professor of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the 2013 Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorers Club of New York.
Counter is being honored for his extraordinary scientific explorations among mercury-exposed Saraguro Indian gold miners in the caves of the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. In addition, he is recognized for his medical science research on lead-poisoned Andean children in the Ecuadorian Mountains. Most notably, Counter discovered the abandoned Inuit sons of the North Pole Explorers, Admiral Robert Peary and Matthew Henson, in Northwest Greenland.
Amy Wagers, HMS professor of stem cell and regenerative biology, received the 2013 Robertson Stem Cell Prize. Awarded by the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the $200,000 prize honors extraordinary achievements in translational stem cell research by a younger scientist. The monetary prize is to be used at the recipients’ discretion to further support their research.
Wagers is recognized for her research on the biology of blood and muscle forming stem cells. Her current work focuses on defining the factors and mechanisms that modulate the migration, expansion, and regenerative potential of aging stem cells.
Three Harvard Medical School faculty members have received the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s inaugural Dvorak Young Investigator Award to further their research on the brain pathways underlying obesity, the role of blood vessels in a dangerous disorder of pregnancy and ways to monitor sedation to ensure better patient experiences. They are:
Mark Andermann, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is being recognized for his work, which aims to understand how hunger and external food cues cause changes in the brain and their potential effects on obesity, binge eating and other eating disorders. Andermann’s work is providing answers to essential questions to help guide the development of treatments for obesity.
Zoltan Arany, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is being recognized for his research working towards the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of metabolism in the skeletal and cardiovascular systems. Arany is currently researching the roles that genetics or infections might play in the onset of peripartum cardiomyopathy, a rare type of heart failure, that occurs during pregnancy, which causes the heart to become enlarged, not allowing blood to be pumped throughout the rest of the body.
Daniel Leffler, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was recognized for his work studying the quality and safety of invasive procedures, including the need to monitor moderate-sedation quality from the perspectives of patients and providers. Leffler’s work helps to improve the quality, safety and value of health care to ensure positive patient experiences. Leffler is the director of clinical research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Celiac Center.
The awards were named in honor of Harold Dvorak, Mallinckrodt Distinguished Professor of Pathology, whose work formed the foundation of the field of angiogenesis and new means of treating cancer.
Matthew Gillman, HMS professor of population medicine, has been appointed to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine. Task Force members are appointed to serve a four-year term by the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Gillman’s research includes early prevention of childhood and adult diseases, particularly obesity, diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular disease. Currently, Gillman’s clinical work is in preventive cardiology in children.
The goal of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services, such as screenings, counseling services, or preventive medicines.
Nathanael Gray, HMS professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, is the recipient of the 2013 Meyenburg Cancer Research Award by the German Cancer Research Center for his outstanding advancements in cancer research.
Gray is being recognized for his research using synthetic chemistry and functional small molecule discovery to modulate biological pathways important to cancer research. Gray works toward developing first-in-class chemical inhibitors for protein kinases, which are potential targets to treat cancer and other diseases.
Christopher Walsh, Hamilton Kuhn Distinguished Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at HMS, is the recipient of the 2014 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry named by the Franklin Institute Awards Program.
Walsh is being recognized for his research focusing on enzymes and enzyme inhibition. He revolutionized the development of antibiotics and established a foundation for the new field of chemical biology.
The Franklin Institute Awards Program recognizes global breakthroughs in science, technology and business leadership. In addition, the Franklin Institute Awards Program aims to make science accessible and relevant while inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. The award recipients will be recognized at the 2014 Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony on April 24 in Philadelphia.
Maria Lehtinen, HMS assistant professor of pathology at Children’s Hospital Boston, is the recipient of the Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Career Development Award name by the Society of Neuroscience. The Career Development Award, supported by the Trubatch family, recognizes originality and creativity in neuroscience research conducted by early -career professionals. The award includes complimentary registration to the Society of Neuroscience’s annual meeting and a $2,000 prize.
Lehtinen is being recognized for her work to discover how cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) provides an adaptive and instructive environment for the developing, adult, and aging brain. She recently discovered an important role for embryonic CSF in instructing the proliferation of neural stem cells in early brain development and understanding the relationship between the active signaling properties of CSF in development and disease has tremendous biological as well as potential therapeutic applications.
