DNA-NY | Accomplishments

November 2006 ALBANY — Thomas J. Begley, a NYSTAR James D. Watson award winner and assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the University at Albany's Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics, was selected by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to receive an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award. See Press Release TOP November 2006 NEW YORK — The bacterium that causes the plague belongs to a virulent family of bacteria called Yersinia, a group that also includes a pathogen responsible for food poisoning. These bacteria insert into their host cells proteins and other virulence factors, which kill by - among other things - disrupting the cells' normal structure. One of these proteins, called YpkA, attacks a cell's internal skeleton. Now, a study published by researchers at The Rockefeller University in the most recent issue of Cell shows exactly how YpkA does this, proving the protein's mechanism from the atomic to the organismal level and providing a potential target for new antibiotic drugs. NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator award winner C. Erec Stebbins, associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Structural Microbiology, and graduate student Gerd Prehna solved the structure for one region of the YpkA protein, a "binding domain" where it interlocks with another protein on the host cell's membrane. TOP October 2006 NORTH GREENBUSH — Thomas J. Begley, Ph.D., a NYSTAR James D. Watson award winner, is the recipient of a $2.2 million Outstanding New Environmental Scientist award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Begley is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and the Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics at State University of New York at Albany. With his ONES grant funding he will examine the way in which damage to DNA from environmental exposures can trigger the production of certain proteins that help protect the cell from toxic agents. Begley is also the winner of a $488,000 NIH grant to research the roles of TRM9 and TRNA methylation in the DNA damage response. See Press Release TOP September 2006 NORTH GREENBUSH — Polytechnic University is proud to congratulate Stavroula Sofou, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, on receiving the Wallace H. Coulter Early Career Translational Research Award. This highly competitive award provides Assistant Professors in Biomedical Engineering Departments across North America with $200,000 of funding over two years. Dr. Sofou was among 23 privileged biomedical engineering researchers who received the award this year. See Press Release TOP May 2006 NEW YORK — Laura Kaufman, a NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator Program award winner presented a speech entitled "Do Probes Sample and/or Alter Heterogeneities in Glasses?" at the April 11, 2006 session of the New York Nanoscience Discussion Group. Sessions feature three 30-minute presentations on nanoscience, one each with strong orientation in biology, chemistry, and physics/applied mathematics. Presentations will be focused on discussion of recent work, although speakers will place the work in a context understandable to a broad audience. TOP April 2006 NEW YORK — Salmonella poisoning, dysentery, the plague, typhoid fever, and a number of other serious ailments are caused by a diverse group of bacterial pathogens that have one thing in common: They all use the same syringe-like system to infect their hosts. Known as a "type III secretion system," this trait allows bacteria to inject virulent proteins straight into the cells of the organism they're infecting. Now, Rockefeller researchers, including NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator Program award winner C. Erec Stebbins have uncovered the first structural similarity shared by these disparate but virulent proteins, a similarity that may help direct future antibiotic research. See Press Release TOP February 2006 NEW YORK — Scott Banta, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Columbia University, and Barclay Morrison, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, have won a 2005 Brain Trust Award given by four leading medical research philanthropies. Their work concerns directed evolution of cell-penetrating peptides for therapeutic delivery across the blood-brain barrier to specific cellular targets. See Press Release TOP October 2005 NEW YORK — Scientists at Columbia University's Nanoscience Center have solved a fundamental, and to date, highly elusive challenge in the fast-developing world of nanotech-molecular electronic devices. In the July 22nd issue of Science, NYSTAR scientist Colin Nuckolls, an associate professor of chemistry, and his colleagues George Tulevski, Matt Myers, Michael Steigerwald, along with Mark S. Hybertsen, from the department of applied physics and applied mathematics, describe how they created a so-called electricity-bridge to allow current to flow efficiently between molecules and nano-sized metals, a process necessary for molecular electronic device construction. See Press Release TOP October 2005 NEW YORK — Bonnie Gersten, an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Queens College and 2003 NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator Award winner was featured in the October 26, 2005 edition of the New York Post as a "CUNY Superstar" in a print ad for an open house event at all 19 CUNY campuses during the month of November. TOP October 2005 NEW YORK — Jan Stegemann, an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and 2003 NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator Award winner received the 2005 Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society. The award is given for "originality and ingenuity in biomedical engineering research". TOP October 2005 NYSTAR RESEARCHER NAMED TOP INNOVATOR Cornell Scientist Receives High Accolades Russell W. Bessette, M.D., Executive Director of NYSTAR, congratulated Matthew DeLisa, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Cornell University, for being chosen as one of the top 35 Innovators under 35 by MIT's Technology Review Magazine. DeLisa is a recent winner of a James Watson Investigator award from NYSTAR. See Press Release TOP April 2005 NEW YORK RANKS HIGH IN PRESTIGIOUS EARLY CAREER AWARDS Ranks Second in Nation in NSF Early Career Awards, Beckman Awards NYSTAR-supported scientists scored favorably in the Beckman competition, including Matthew DeLisa, Ph.D., a life science researcher at Cornell University, and winner of a NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator award. See Press Release TOP March 2005 NEW YORK — Matthew DeLisa was selected as a 2005 Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award winner to support a project related to his efforts in engineering cellular protein machinery entitled "A New Approach to Synthesis and Folding of Modular Proteins via Ribosome Reprogramming." The award provides $264,000 over 3 years. TOP October 2004 NEW YORK — Two scientists with ties to NYSTAR - Nicholas J. Turro and Colin P. Nuckolls, both of Columbia University - were honored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for their academic excellence in science and technology; and Toh-Ming Lu, director of the NYSTAR-supported Center for Advanced Interconnect Systems Technologies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received the 2004 Materials Research Society medal. See Press Release TOP September 2004 NEW YORK — A breakthrough technology being developed by Dr. Scott C. Blanchard -- recently recruited to Weill Medical College of Cornell University under the College's Strategic Research Plan - is finally allowing researchers an unprecedented view into the workings of individual molecules. See Press Release TOP September 2004 NEW YORK — Technology Review magazine has named Cornell Assistant Professors Alyssa Apsel of electrical and computer engineering and D. Tyler McQuade of chemistry and chemical biology two of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators in 2004. See Press Release TOP July 2004 ITHACA — Five Cornell University researchers have been honored by prestigious U.S. and international academic groups. They are Leonard Gross, professor of mathematics; Éanna Flanagan, associate professor of physics; D. Tyler McQuade and Paul Chirik, both assistant professors of chemistry and chemical biology; and Thomas W. Parks, professor of electrical engineering. See Press Release TOP May 2004 NYSTAR BIOTECH RESEARCHERS WIN MAJOR NATIONAL AWARDS Awards Include Presidential Honor For New York Researchers Russell W. Bessette, M.D., Executive Director of the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), congratulated three James D. Watson Investigator Program award winners, as well as seven other New York researchers, for being recognized nationally for groundbreaking research in biotechnology and other scientific disciplines. See Press Release TOP December 2003 NEW YORK — Erec Stebbins of The Rockefeller University, a NYSTAR James D. Watson Investigator Award winner, was among the presenters at the Emerging Infectious Diseases Discussion Group meeting on December 1 at the New York Academy of Sciences, 2 East 63rd Street, New York City. The keynote speaker was Martin Blaser of the New York University School of Medicine. TOP June 2002 ITHACA — D. Tyler McQuade, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, has won a Nontenured Faculty Award from 3M Co. McQuade's research group is investigating a biomimetic approach to materials research, attempting to create well-defined polymeric and molecular-based assemblies that mimic the complexity and function of biological materials, from enzymes to organs, building on the tools acquired through the synthesis of small molecules. The award carries a check for $15,000. TOP