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Le Grice Group Awards


2009 and 2007 NCI Mentor of Merit Awards

    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.

    Photo of Jeopardy contest winners Brittany Ashe & David Kaiser-Jones & mentors Jason Rausch & 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

    Photo of NCI Director John Niederhuber presenting award in 2009 to Jason RauschIn 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). 

    Photo of NCI Director John Niederhuber presenting award to Legiewicz and SanthanamMichal 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.

    Photo of NCI Director John Niederhuber presenting award to Jason Rausch

    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)

    Photo of Chandravanu Dash, Research Fellow in HIV Drug Resistance ProgramIn 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.


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.:

            Yi Wang (2009)
            Michaela Wendeler (2009)
            Chandravanu Dash (2007)


Last modified: 28 September 2009


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