The 31st annual Young Investigators' Day celebration
at Johns Hopkins will highlight discoveries
ranging from how cells sense oxygen to how nerve cells grow
and develop. Twelve students and six
fellows will receive awards, and all young investigators at
the School of Medicine will be celebrated.
"Yet again, all the applicants are outstanding," said
Randall Reed, professor of molecular biology
and genetics and chair of the selection committee. "The job
of the committee gets harder and harder
every year."
The Young Investigators' Day program will start at 4
p.m. on Thursday, April 10, in the School of
Medicine's Mountcastle Auditorium, East Baltimore campus,
where selected awardees will present
their research and all will receive honors. A poster
session and reception will follow.
The path to success — how did they get here?
For some, success resulted from the collaborative
atmosphere throughout, and beyond, Johns
Hopkins.
For two awardees, success came from real teamwork.
Postdoctoral fellows Ping Gao, recipient of
the W. Barry Wood Jr. Award, and Huafeng Zhang,
recipient of the Albert Lehninger Award, have
published two papers through their collaboration over the
years. Together they discovered how
antioxidants might be used to prevent the growth of a
specific tumor type, one that relies on the
HIF-1 protein for survival. They also have uncovered the
mechanism of the Warburg effect, where
cancer cells use a low-yield process to generate energy for
survival. "We really have enjoyed working
together through the projects," said Gao. "It's one of the
major benefits of doing science here at
Hopkins."
David Israel Macht Award recipient Nicolas
Tritsch, a doctoral candidate in the Graduate
Program in Neuroscience, discovered how electrical activity
is generated in auditory neurons before
the onset of hearing. He credits his success to his
adviser, Dwight Bergles, "for his undivided
attention, his genuine interest and his constant stream of
ingenious ideas, and from open
collaborations and scientific discussions with many faculty
members at Hopkins. None of this would
have been possible without the collegiality that exists
here," he said.
Ling Wang, a doctoral candidate in Pharmacology
and Molecular Sciences and recipient of the
Hans Joaquim Prochaska Award, said she believes her project
was successful because of a good working
team. "My adviser, Philip Cole, guided me through critical
points, and we had great collaborators at the
Wistar Institute," she said. Wang solved the high-resolution
X-ray crystal structure of the p300/CBP
protein, an important co-activator of gene function
implicated in cancer and other diseases.
Gregg Semenza and advisee Haufeng
Zhang, winner of the Albert Lehninger Award; and W. Barry
Wood Jr. Award winner Ping Gao and his adviser, Chi
Dang.
Photo by Will Kirk / HIPS
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Alfred Blalock Research Award recipient Abde
Abukhdeir also credits a team effort. "The
guidance of my mentor, Ben Ho Park, and the insurmountable
level of teamwork we have in our group
significantly contributed to my project's success," said
Abukhdeir, a postdoctoral fellow whose work
led to the identification of small molecules that can
overcome Tamoxifen resistance in estrogen-
positive breast cancers.
For Phil Gray, an MD candidate and recipient of
one of four Paul Erlich Awards, success came
from a multi-institutional, multi-investigator effort that
included some input from his fiancee, who
introduced him to his research mentors at Harvard Medical
School, where he took a break from Johns
Hopkins and found that the molecular chaperone cdc37
behaves differently than its HSP90 relatives
and might make an attractive therapeutic target for cooling
cancer growth. "I appreciate the
collaboration and support Hopkins offered in enabling me to
pursue a project elsewhere, and am
indebted to my mentors here, Theodore DeWeese, Donald
Coffey, Patrick Walsh and William Nelson,"
Gray said.
Inspiring mentors with endless and contagious
enthusiasm led other young investigators to their
success.
"Mario Amzel's words kept me highly motivated from the
beginning of my high-risk, high-reward
project," said Chuan-Hsiang Huang, a doctoral
candidate in the Immunology Graduate Program and
recipient of the Mette Strand Research Award. Huang solved
the structure of a PI3K-alpha
heterodimeric complex, a protein frequently mutated in
human cancers whose structure many others
have failed at solving.
Bridget Todd Hughes, a doctoral candidate in
the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology
Graduate Program and recipient of the Alicia Showalter
Reynolds Award, said, "I had the unique
experience of being one of the first two students to join
Peter Espenshade's lab, and we had the
opportunity to work very closely with Peter, whose
encouragement, support and terrific advice were
instrumental in keeping this project on track." Hughes has
discovered how yeast cells sense oxygen
concentration, a mechanism that may be shared across many
organisms and uses a new class of oxygen
sensors.
Hun-way Hwang, a doctoral candidate in Human
Genetics and Molecular Biology and recipient of
a Paul Erlich Award, said of his adviser, Joshua Mendell
(recipient of the Michael A. Shanoff Award in
2003), "What I admire most is his great enthusiasm for
science, which is highly infectious. So many
times after talking to Josh, I immediately felt like going
back to the bench to work for another eight
hours." Hwang's work uncovered a microRNA that is actively
imported into the nucleus, a first,
suggesting that microRNAs may be doing something in the
nucleus unrelated to their known roles in
translational regulation.
Hongjun Song, standing, visits
with labmates Xin Duan, winner of the Nupur Dinesh Thekdi
Award, and Shaoyu Ge, winner of the A. McGehee Harvey
Award.
Photo by Will Kirk / HIPS
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Xin Duan, a doctoral candidate in Neuroscience
and recipient of the Nupur Dinesh Thekdi
Award, showed at the cellular level how the schizophrenia
susceptibility gene DISC1 can modulate the
development of newborn neurons as they integrate into the
neuronal network. "My superb adviser,
Hongjun Song, deserves the credit for his guidance,
patience and encouragement," he said. Labmate
Shaoyu Ge, a postdoctoral fellow, is this year's recipient
of the A. McGehee Harvey Award, for
discovering a critical period in a new adult neuron's life
where the cell exhibits the same ability to
learn as an infant's neurons.
And for all awardees, success came from good
old-fashioned hard work. When asked what
contributed to his project's success, Elias Issa, a
doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering and
recipient of a Paul Erlich Award, had a one-word answer,
"Persistence." Issa found that the activity in
auditory neurons during sleep cannot support the same sound
processing as wakeful neuronal activity.
"We know so little about what the brain does during sleep,"
he said. "Hearing is a great way to probe
neural activity since the ears are always open."
Although 18 individuals are being recognized, the
Young Investigators Day event is meant to
celebrate all of the school's students, postdocs and
fellows. "The trainees at Hopkins are the driving
force here," said Chi V. Dang, vice dean for research in
the School of Medicine. "We would be lost
without them. We train them, and in return they teach us
wonderful new things all the time."
And this year's award recipients are generous in
sharing the glory.
"I know several students who have done great work but
because of time conflicts with
graduation cannot apply for Young Investigators' Day," said
Yefei Han, a doctoral candidate in the
Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate
Program, adding that he hopes that they and
others can be recognized as well. Han is the recipient of
the Bae Gyo Jung Award for finding that
HIV-1 genomes are integrated into active genes in resting T
cells, challenging the prevailing theory
that HIV latency is due to viral integration into inactive
regions of the genome.
"I am deeply honored to receive an award, given the
high quality research performed by my
peers," said physician Benjamin Brooke, a
postdoctoral fellow and recipient of the Helen Taussig
Award for showing for the first time that treating Marfan
syndrome patients with angiotensin II
receptor blocker can stop aneurysm growth and prevent other
life-threatening complications of the
disorder.
Said MD/PhD candidate Andre Sdrulla, who
discovered that shrinkage and loss of so-called
dendritic spines of nerve cells does not affect the
strength of communication between neurons,
"There is so much exciting research taking place here;
[it's] too bad there are not more awards to go
around." Sdrulla is recipient of a Paul Erlich Award.
Also being honored at Thursday's event are Laura
Wood, MD/PhD candidate in Cellular and
Molecular Medicine, recipient of the Michael A. Shanoff
Award for studying the genomic landscapes
of cancers; Qiaojie Xiong, PhD candidate in Cellular
and Molecular Physiology, recipient of the Martin
and Carol Macht Research Award for studying the activation
of voltage-gated potassium channels by
chemical openers; and Michael J. Wolfgang,
postdoctoral fellow in Biological Chemistry, recipient
of the Daniel Nathans Award for his work on characterizing
carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1c as a
neuron-specific target of malonyl-CoA.
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