Pharmacology In the News 

Congratulations to Sandra Bajjalieh on her promotion to Professor!

Congratulations to Todd Scheuer on his promotion to Research Professor!

June 18, 2008
Alexandra P. Few, Presynaptic Calcium Channel Regulation and Short-term Synaptic Plasticity

September 17, 2008
Paige Cundiff, Regulation of Ngn1 by the ERK5 MAP Kinase During Cortical Neurogenesis

Ning Zheng appointed as a Howard Hughes Investigator October 1, 2008
The UW's Ning Zheng, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, was among 56 researchers around the country who were selected as Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. The positions allow biomedical researchers to continue working at their institutions and receive several years of guaranteed funding from HHMI for ambitious research projects that may not normally be supported by traditional granting organizations. Some of Zheng's research has focused on TIR1, a plant cell receptor that also plays an important role in human health and disease. His lab's explanation of the receptor's structure was a cover story in the journal Nature last year. Zheng is also studying compounds that can restore the function of disease-associated defective ubiqutin ligases, which fail to grab onto proteins like normally functioning ligases. Ubiquitin ligases are believed by many scientists to be potential next-generation drug targets because of the role they play in so many biological pathways.

Howard Hughes Investigator John Scott joins the Pharmacology faculty August 1, 2008
The Pharmacology department welcomes our newest faculty member, John Scott. John is a Howard Hughes Investigator who is interested in the spatial and temporal specificity of signal transduction events controlled by anchoring proteins (AKAPs), which facilitate rapid signal transduction by optimally positioning protein kinases and phosphatases in the vicinity of their activating signals and close to their substrates. John was a previous postdoctoral fellow in the Nobel prize-winning lab of Edwin Krebs. John will be the first holder of the Edwin G. Krebs-Hilma Speights Endowed Professorship in Cell Signaling and Cancer Biology. This professorship honors Krebs for his seminal contributions to cell signaling research and recognizes Hilma Speights for her exceptional support of cancer research. The professorship will support John's studies in cell signaling and cancer biology and will also provide funds for research symposia and educational programs in this important research area.

Recent graduate student Kristin Eckel-Mahan's PhD thesis work is being published in Nature Neuroscience, August 10th. One of the major unanswered questions in Neurobiology is how we maintain long-term memories that outlast the life-time of synaptic proteins that contribute to long-term memory. In Kristin's paper she reports that the persistence of spatial memories depends on the circadian oscillation of the cAMP/MAP kinase/CREB transcriptional pathway in the hippocampus, the signal transduction pathway that consolidates memories. This is the first evidence for the molecular basis for the maintenance of long-term memories and suggests the interesting idea that this pathway is replayed daily, perhaps during sleep, to maintain memories. Kristin is now a postdoctral fellow in Sassone Corsi's lab at Irvine. Dr. Corsi is one of the world's leaders in transcription and circadian biology.

Rich Gardner wins 2008 Marian E. Smith Award July 28, 2008
Rich Gardner, Assistant Professor, has been named the University of Washington School of Medicine's tenth recipient of the Marian E. Smith Junior Faculty Research Award. The award, given to one promising junior faculty member each year, will support his research on protein quality control degradation in the nucleus, which is crucial for understanding protein aggregation diseases of the nucleus, like Huntington's.

Rich Gardner wins 2008 Kimmel Scholar Award April 28, 2008
Rich Gardner, Assistant Professor, has been named a recipient of the Kimmel Scholar Award. The Kimmel Scholar Awards were created in 1997 to advance the careers of gifted, young scientists involved in cancer research. Scientists are selected who show the greatest promise and innovation, but whose careers have not evolved sufficiently to provide them the critical mass of prior research that typically justifies receiving major grants from the National Cancer Institute and other funding sources. Sixteen Kimmel Scholar Awards were given to junior faculty members from fifteen different institutions nationwide. The $200,000 two year award will support research on the role of protein deubiquitination in chromatin regulation and other vital nuclear processes currently being conducted in the Gardner lab.

Randy Moon receives $2.5 million for stem cell research - Read More>>

Atomic-resolution views give clues to the function of an enzyme critical in regulating light-detecting signals inside the eye - Read More>>

How does a zebrafish grow a new tail? The answer may help treat human injuries. - Read More>>

Paralytic shellfish toxins cause mutation that allows clams to accumulate 100 times more toxin - Read More>>

UW researchers identify potential therapeutic target for Huntington's disease - Read More>>

UW group blocks formation of toxic protein clumps seen in Huntington's disease - Read More>>

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