Neuroscientist wins prestigious NIH Director’s Pioneer Award

Dr. Valentin Dragoi, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy, is one of 17 researchers to win a 2010 National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award. The award supports scientists who propose revolutionary, high-impact approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research.

Dragoi, who is proposing a new way to study how the brain processes information, will receive a total award of approximately $3.5 million over the next five years.

“To have been selected for this award is fantastic news for me. The Pioneer competition was extremely intense,” Dragoi said.

The 2010 Pioneer Awardees will be introduced at the Sixth Annual NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Symposium in Bethesda, Maryland, Sept. 30–Oct. 1.

“Scientists are trying to understand the fundamental way in which the brain operates,” said Dr. John Byrne, holder of the June and Virgil Waggoner Chair and chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy. “There are many diseases of the brain. In many cases, we do not know what causes them.”

Learning more about the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and other brain diseases could aid in the development of treatments, Byrne said. “If your car sputters and you don’t know how it works, it is hard to fix,” he said.

While some people think of the brain as a computer, it is more like a complex network of computers. “Neuroscientists know how individual neurons (nerve cells) work. The big challenge is understanding how the neurons work together,” Dragoi said. The brain contains more than 100 billion neurons, each linked to as many as 10,000 other neurons.

Much of Dragoi’s research is focused on how neural networks process information to influence behavior. “Nerve cells may form a network to process one piece of sensory information. Another combination of these cells can reform to process something else,” he said.

With the Pioneer Award, Dragoi plans to develop advanced technologies that will allow him to observe neural activity in naturalistic environments. The technology also will let Dragoi monitor brain activity during sleep.

“We all know sleep is critical to enhance learning. You can’t perform well without it. But, we are not really sure why,” Dragoi said.

NIH review panelists described his approach as “the future of neuroscience.”

“This is one of the top honors a biomedical researcher can receive,” said Dr. Peter Davies, provost and executive vice president of research at UTHealth.

In 2009, Dragoi won a $1.2 million grant through an NIH initiative called Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration (EUREKA). He is also the recipient of the James S. McDonnell Award, the Pew Scholar Award, and the Merck Award. Dragoi received his doctorate at Duke University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dragoi is the second Pioneer Award recipient from UTHealth. Dr. Cheng Chi Lee, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, earned a Pioneer Award in 2006.

— Robert Cahill, Office of Institutional Advancement, Media Relations

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Scientist working on innovative treatment for muscle disorder

Dr. Vihang Narkar has a passion for “making fundamental biomedical discoveries.” It is a reason why he is convinced that boosting fatigue-resistant aerobic muscle could be a potential therapeutic pathway for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Noting that DMD is a progressive neuromuscular disorder caused by a defective gene that fails to produce the structural protein known as dystrophin, Narkar, an assistant professor at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM), explains that while fixing or replacing a defective gene is a difficult proposition, it is critical to explore how “fundamental muscle remodeling pathways can be used to bypass the genetic defect and combat pathology.”

Narkar, with the IMM’s Center for Diabetes and Obesity Research, will be able to explore this DMD research direction with the help of a new, three-year Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) grant of $302,326.

“What we have on our hands is a genetic pathway which can make a muscle resistant to fatigue,” Narkar said. “We have found that over-expression of an orphan estrogen-related nuclear receptor in healthy mouse skeletal muscle activates genes that encode a highly aerobic and fatigue-resistant muscle.” Now, his laboratory is investigating whether this nuclear receptor pathway can be activated to engineer the aerobic “muscle of choice” in DMD to reverse the dystrophic pathology.

Narkar is one of 38 research leaders receiving new multi-year awards from MDA. His three-year project is part of the $14.1 million in research funding approved during the association’s July Board meeting. This is his first MDA grant.

“Dr. Narkar’s research is innovative and important,” said Dr. R. Rodney Howell, chairman of the MDA Board of Directors. “We’re delighted that he’s joining the MDA family of investigators who are collectively focused on speeding treatments to help children and adults affected by progressive muscle diseases.”

Visit Narkar’s laboratory for information.

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IMM hosts inaugural summer research program

A new tradition began July 28, when college students, faculty, and staff from UTHealth and Baylor College of Medicine summer research programs joined forces to celebrate the closing of the inaugural year of the Gene-Environment (GXE) Summer Research Program for Undergraduates of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).

More than 100 people marked the close of the first IMM undergraduate summer research program with a poster presentation and a graduate school fair at the James T. Willerson M.D. Discovery Hall of the Fayez S. Sarofim Building.

“The program’s goal is to match outstanding college students with distinguished faculty at UTHealth, Baylor College of Medicine, and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to conduct biomedical research focused on studying gene-environment interactions and their impact in human diseases,” said Dr. Liliana Rodriguez, of the IMM Training Programs Office.

During the 10-week program, each student worked at least 40 hours in a laboratory on a research project and attended scientific seminars and social events. GXE is co-directed by Dr. Thomas Caskey, executive vice president for molecular medicine and genetics and holder of the George C. Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Neurosciences, and Dr. Eric Boerwinkle, professor and director of the Division of Epidemiology and holder of the Kozmetsky Family Chair in Human Genetics School of Public Health.

Five undergraduate students comprised the inaugural GXE class and were chosen based on their academic achievements, desire to pursue a career in biomedical research, and letters of recommendation. The IMM partnered with Baylor’s SMART program and UT GSBS Summer Program to draw applicants.

To qualify for this program, applicants must:

• Be juniors or non-graduate seniors.
• Be 18 years of age by the start of the program.
• Have a GPA of at least 3.5 in math and science courses and an overall GPA of at least 3.0.
• Be able to work at least 40 hours per week in a research lab for the duration of the 10-week program.
• Complete the online application.

To obtain more information on the program or to apply, visit the Web site.

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HAM-TMC Library sponsors eugenics lecture at Medical School

A lecture in conjunction with the How Healing Becomes Killing: Eugenics, Euthanasia and Extermination exhibit currently on display at the HAM-TMC Library will be held 3–4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14 in MSB 3.001. The exhibit is on loan by the Holocaust Museum of Houston.

Dr. John Lienhard, award-winning narrator of the public radio segment The Engines of Our Ingenuity, will present a lecture on Reflections Upon Galatea, a discussion of the literature of eugenics. Lienhard is an M. D. Anderson professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and history at the University of Houston. He has written and hosted nearly 2,000 episodes of The Engines of Our Ingenuity, produced by KUHF-FM, the University of Houston’s public radio station.

The free lecture is open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

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The momentum of retreat

 

 

 

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