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Le
Grice Group Awards NCI
Mentor of Merit Award |
Stuart Le Grice was nominated for the 2007 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 presented
Dr. Le Grice with the Mentor of Merit citation at the NCI Director's Awards ceremony
in November 2007. |
NCI
Director's Intramural Innovation Awards  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.
In
2007, Jason Rausch was awarded $10,000 from the NCI
Director's Intramural Innovation Award Program. Dr. Rausch's innovation,
"Evolving Sequence-Specific Integrases and Methyltransferases by In Vitro
Compartmentalization and Selection," 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.
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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.: |
