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“
My mother had Alzheimer’s, and
it’s very gratifying to me that my
research will perhaps help advance
a treatment for this devastating
disorder.
“
Robert Vassar, PhD, professor in
cell and molecular biology, Zenith
Fellows Award recipient from the
Alzheimer’s Association
Robert Vassar, PhD, professor in cell and molecular biology,
was one of four researchers to receive the extremely competitive
Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer’s Association.
He will use the nearly half-million dollar prize to perform
innovative research on the BACE1 enzyme, which he discovered
more than a decade ago. The BACE1 enzyme is required for the
production of a toxic protein called beta-amyloid that builds up
in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and kills brain cells.
“BACE1 is also likely to perform beneficial functions in the
brain and body, so blocking it with a drug may cause side
effects,” Vassar says. “In broad terms, my Zenith Award
research will focus on gaining new knowledge about the
normal physiological functions of BACE1 so that we can
predict the potential side effects of inhibitor drugs and
suggest ways to avoid them.”
He continues, “This award is only given to a handful of
individuals each year, so I feel extremely honored to receive it.”
“The drug pipeline for disorders of the nervous system has
really slowed to a trickle and there are a lot of major pharmaceutical
companies that have pulled back from neuroscience
because they think it’s too hard of a nut to crack,” said Surmeier,
Nathan Smith Davis Professor of Physiology. “The NIH, and
Director Francis Collins in particular, developed this idea that one
way of increasing the flow of new compounds into the therapeutics
pipeline is to fund the interaction between academics, whose
real skill is in target discovery, and the pharmaceutical industry,
which is very good at drug development.”
Katherine Wisner, MD, MS, pictured
here with former first lady Rosalynn
Carter, was named director of the Asher
Center for Research and Treatment of
Depressive Disorders in July. She arrived
at Northwestern University Feinberg
School of Medicine with a specific charge — to create a prominent
center of cutting-edge research, and translate findings to
alleviate the suffering of patients with mood disorders.
“What we want to do is really grease the wheel in terms of
working with basic scientists, clinical scientists, and health
policy makers to bring new treatments rapidly from the bench
to the bedside,” Wisner says. “We will have an accessible
database of patients and have their biological samples to study
hypotheses, test those novel treatments, and then to more
broadly disseminate them.”
“
What we want to do is really grease
the wheel in terms of working with
basic scientists, clinical scientists,
and health policy makers to bring new
treatments rapidly from the bench to
the bedside.
“
Before joining Northwestern this year, Dr. Wisner was the
director of Women’s Behavioral HealthCARE and a professor
of psychiatry, and of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive
sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
since 2002.
Her area of specialty is reproductive psychiatry, and her
work studying the impact of exposure to major depression and
treatment options during pregnancy has resulted in more than
165 publications.
In 2011, she was the recipient of the American Medical
Women’s Association’s Women in Science Award.
ward rounds Fall/Winter 2012 — p.7