| Le
Grice Group Awards
2009
and 2007 NCI Mentor of Merit Awards
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In 2009 and 2007, Stuart Le Grice was nominated for the NCI Outstanding
Mentor Award and was selected as a Mentor of Merit. Dr. Le Grice received
one of the highest rankings in a competitive review in which nominees were "judged
on their records as mentors; their accessibility to trainees; their ability to
communicate and provide instruction and constructive feedback; their capacity
to provide an environment conducive to science and learning; their propensity
to give credit to trainees and promote visibility of their work; and their attention
to the career development needs of those they mentor." NCI Director John
Niederhuber will present Dr. Le Grice with the Mentor of Merit citation at the
NCI Director's Awards ceremony in October 2009. |
NCI-Frederick Scientific Library Student Science Jeopardy Tournament
|
Brittany Ashe and David Kaiser-Jones won the
3rd Annual NCI-Frederick Scientific Library Student Science Jeopardy Tournament
in 2009, competing against 11 other 2-student teams in the traditional Jeopardy
"answer and question" format. Brittany is a Werner Kirsten Student Intern
working with mentor Jason Rausch; David is a Summer CRTA working
with mentor Michal Legiewicz. 
Shown
from left to right: Jason Rausch, Brittany Ashe,
Michal Legiewicz,
and David Kaiser-Jones
|
2009
NIH Merit Award |
Stuart Le Grice was nominated and selected to receive a 2009
NIH Merit Award with Robert Yarchoan (HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch, NCI).
Robert Wiltrout, Director of the Center for Cancer Research, NCI, nominated Drs.
Le Grice and Yarchoan for this Group Award, titled HIV/AIDS and HIV Malignancy
Leadership Group, for leadership in promoting and supporting research in HIV/AIDS
and HIV-associated malignancies in the NCI. |
NCI
Director's Intramural Innovation Awards
 In
2009, Jason Rausch received a $10,000 NCI Director's Intramural
Innovation Award for his application entitled "Incorporating Unnatural Amino Acids
into the Pol V Mutasome for Photocrosslinking and Single-Molecule FRET."
Dr. Rausch's innovation entails the expression, purification, and utilization
of proteins containing unnatural amino acids to explore structural and mechanistic
aspects of DNA repair in unprecedented ways and using state-of-the-art technologies.
These technologies can be applied to a wide variety of experimental systems, including
those used for drug screening, in which the presence of numerous or catalytically
critical cysteines otherwise prohibits conventional protein labeling. This
award is the second that Dr. Rausch has received through the NCI Director's Intramural
Innovation Award Program (see the text below for a description of his first award).
 Michal
Legiewicz (Stuart Le Grice group) and Arti Santhanam
(Nancy Colburn group) were awarded $10,000 from the NCI Director's Intramural
Innovation Award Program in 2008 for their proposal "Structural Determinants Within
the 5'-UTR of Cancer-Relevant mRNAs Regulated at the Level of Translation."
The NCI Director's Intramural Innovation Award Program is designed to support
the development of highly innovative approaches and technology aimed at significant
cancer-related problems. Deregulation of protein synthesis is an early event
in cancer progression. In recent years, considerable effort has been focused
on translation as a molecular target for both cancer prevention and therapy.
The novel tumor suppressor PDCD4 functions by inhibiting the RNA helicase activity
of the eukaryotic initiation factor eIF4A and hence the efficient translation
of specific oncoproteins. Applying the innovative RNA mapping technology
SHAPE to determine structural signatures within the 5'-UTR of various mRNAs will
explain why only select mRNAs are targets of PDCD4. In high throughput,
SHAPE will allow examination of multiple RNAs simultaneously or the same RNA under
various conditions. This unique feature makes it possible to monitor minor
RNA structural response to the presence/activity of protein factors at different
concentrations and test the significance of other co-factors that are important
for RNA structure (e.g., divalent cations) or for protein enzymatic function (e.g.,
ATP). No other technology offers this unusual combination of sensitivity,
flexibility for applied conditions, and high throughput. High-throughput
identification of structural signatures defining oncogenic mRNAs will have tremendous
potential in the discovery and design of novel, powerful anticancer drugs.
Jason
Rausch was awarded $10,000 in 2007 from the NCI Director's Intramural
Innovation Award Program for his application entitled "Evolving Sequence-Specific
Integrases and Methyltransferases by In Vitro Compartmentalization and
Selection." Dr. Rausch's innovation uses a novel methodology to simultaneously
screen millions of enzyme variants, with selection based both on targeted binding/activity
and the absence of nonspecific binding activity. Directed evolution has
never been applied in this manner to either of these enzymes, and some of the
proposed methods for linking phenotype with genotype are unprecedented.
This is the first of two NCI Director's Intramural Innovation Awards that Dr.
Rausch has received (see the text above for a description of his 2009 award). |
Howard
Temin Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)
|
 In
September 2007, Chandravanu (CV) Dash successfully competed
for a Howard Temin Pathway to Independence (PI) Award (K99/R00) from the National
Institute on Drug Abuse for his proposal "Role of Nucleic Acid Structure in HIV-1
Replication." The award provides up to five years of support consisting
of two phases. The initial phase will provide one to two years of mentored
support (up to $90,000) for highly promising postdoctoral research scientists.
This phase will be followed by up to three years of independent support (up to
$249,000) contingent on securing an independent research position. The primary
goal of the PI Award Program is to increase and maintain a strong cohort of new
and talented NIH-supported independent investigators.
The
long-term goal of Dr. Dash's PI award is to elucidate the mechanism of interactions
between essential viral and cellular enzymes with their nucleic acid substrates
during HIV replication. New and important biochemical data obtained from
this proposal are expected to facilitate our understanding of the mechanism of
HIV-1 replication, which is essential to designing better and effective drugs
against HIV. Dr. Dash is mentored by Dr. Stuart Le Grice and co-mentored
by Dr. Vineet KewalRamani of the HIV Drug Resistance Program at NCI-Frederick.
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NCI-Frederick
Spring Research Festival Poster Awards
Michal Legiewicz and Michaela Wendeler won poster
awards for their presentations at the NCI-Frederick Spring Research Festival in
2008 and 2007, respectively.
NIH
Fellows Award for Research Excellence
The NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) acknowledges outstanding
scientific research performed by intramural postdoctoral fellows. The award
is sponsored by the NIH Fellows Committee, the Scientific Directors, the NIH Office
of Research on Women's Health, and the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education,
and is funded by the Scientific Directors and the Office of Research on Women's
Health. Awards are based on scientific merit, originality, experimental
design, and overall quality/presentation of the abstracts.
The following
Fellows in the Le Grice Laboratory won FARE stipends of $1000 for travel to attend
and present their work at a scientific meeting in the U.S.:
Last
modified: 28 September 2009
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