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1st appeared
31
October 2000
UCSF/VA Researcher Wins Presidential Award
Huang visited the White House on October 24 to receive the award in recognition of his promising research on the molecules that allow neurons to grow and survive. Some 60 other scientists and engineers from various federal government agencies received the awards, which President Clinton established in 1996 to recognize federal researchers who show "exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge." Huang studies the molecules in brain cells that allow them to survive and help them to develop into particular types of neurons, such as those that carry signals to the brain from the muscles, skin, and inner ear. Researchers believe these molecules play an important role in many degenerative diseases of the brain, and may contribute to future treatments or preventions. Neurons develop by responding to proteins called neurotrophic factors, which bind to receptors on the surface of the cells, Huang explained. Working with his former postdoctoral advisor Lou Reichardt, PhD, UCSF professor of physiology, and biochemistry and biophysics, Huang identified some of the proteins inside sensory nerve cells that are necessary for this growth factor response and to the cell's survival. Seven months ago, Huang took a position at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC), and is now running his own small research lab. "Maybe this research doesn't have a very direct application to a human disease at the moment," he said. "But it does start to show us how neurons are made, and how the viability of neurons is maintained. If we can figure out this system, we may be able to provide therapeutic agents to promote survival of neurons," Huang said. Huang first came to UCSF as a resident in anatomic pathology in 1993 after earning his MD degree at National Taiwan University and his PhD at Cornell in molecular biology. The VA's Office of Research and Development will grant Huang $125,000 over the next five years to aid his research. Although the White House chooses the recipients of the Early Career Awards, the amount of money received by each awardee is determined by his or her government agency. Huang is the fourth UCSF recipient of a Presidential Early Career award. Past awardees include Mary Nakamura, MD, UCSF assistant professor of medicine and a staff rheumatologist at SFVAMC; Allison Doupe, MD, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry; and Ida Sim, MD, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of medicine. Source: Kevin Boyd, News Services |
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A
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers was presented
last week to Eric Huang, MD, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of pathology
and a pathologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.