UCSF Scientists Honored for Pioneering Studies of Aging, Cancer, Learning and Memory

By Jennifer O'Brien

UCSF's Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, and Roger Nicoll, MD, have each received a 2006 Peter Gruber Prize, awarded annually to individuals in various disciplines who have made discoveries and contributions that effect fundamental shifts in human knowledge and culture. Blackburn received the 2006 Genetics Prize for her pioneering studies of telomeres, the tiny caps of DNA that bind the ends of chromosomes, and of telomerase, the enzyme that controls them. Blackburn's research revealed the fundamental role that telomeres play in normal aging and cancer. The telomerase enzyme is now a therapeutic target for diseases related to aging, as well as cancer. Blackburn also was cited for her public advocacy of science. As a member of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2004, she was an outspoken opponent of a ban on therapeutic cloning, a technique designed to derive embryonic stem cells for the study and potentially treatment of diseases. She remained an advocate of public funding and regulation of this research after dismissal from the council, publishing articles in the journals Public Library of Science Biology (the article was accepted to the journal before her dismissal) and New England Journal of Medicine. She believes she was dismissed from the council because of her stance on the issue. "Elizabeth Blackburn has transformed our understanding of how cells age and die," says Peter Gruber, chairman of the Peter Gruber Foundation. "And she has acted as a true citizen-scientist, working to ensure that public debate on the impact of science on society is well informed and grounded in fact." Blackburn, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, was presented with a gold medal and a $250,000 cash prize from the Peter Gruber Foundation in October at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in New Orleans, where she delivered a lecture on her prize-winning scientific research. She was named an elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 and was a recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2006. Illuminating the Mind Nicoll, UCSF professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, received the 2006 Neuroscience Prize for his role in illuminating the way in which the brain learns and remembers. Over several decades, he has demonstrated that learning and memory occur when neural connections between nerve cells in the brain are strengthened. These connections are referred to as synapses, and occur when a cell releases a chemical messenger, or neurotransmitter, that then binds to receptors in a receiving cell, evoking a response. Nicoll has demonstrated that, following brief, intense activation of synapses, as would occur with a novel stimulus, there is a long-lasting enhancement in the neural connection. This capacity to strengthen a connection - known as synaptic plasticity or long-term potentiation (LTP) - is considered the linchpin for processing, storing and recalling all information in the brain. Recent work from Nicoll's lab, as well as other labs, suggests that LTP is due to the rapid insertion of the receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate into the synapse. He and his team are working to elucidate the molecular basis of LTP. Nicoll's research focuses specifically on the brain's hippocampus, a region responsible for "explicit" learning - the kind that requires conscious absorption of new information, such as facts and associations with a particular place. The hippocampus is severely damaged in Alzheimer's disease. Nicoll, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994, shares the Peter Gruber prize with Masao Ito, MD, PhD, of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, who was recognized for his work on the role of the brain's cerebellum in motor learning and the overall organization of neuronal circuitry involving network and cellular mechanisms for changing synaptic strength. "In a global perspective, Drs. Ito and Nicoll have contributed importantly, over many decades, to furthering neuroscience at all levels, from molecular and cellular to the circuit level, as well as to the training of a new generation of outstanding neuroscientists," says Gruber. "Once we understand the chemistry of thought, we may then be able to design better drugs to deal with Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases of the brain," he says. Nicoll and Ito were presented with the prize in October at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta. Following the award presentation, Nicoll and Ito presented the 2006 Gruber Lecture, which they titled "Brain Learns with Molecules and Circuitry."

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