AS-harvard-macarthur

Tue Sep 28 11:41:48 2004 Pacific Time

      Harvard Medical Researcher Receives MacArthur 'Genius' Award

       BOSTON, Sept. 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- A MacArthur Fellowship has been awarded to Vamsi Mootha, Harvard Medical School assistant professor in the HMS Department of Systems Biology and the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

       "This extraordinary award to one of our new recruits in the Systems Biology Department confirms our selection of Vamsi as a leading young thinker in computational approaches to biological questions," said HMS dean Joseph Martin.

       Mootha, a clinician-researcher, is developing experimental and computational strategies to integrate genomic, proteomic, and microarray data to accelerate human disease-gene discovery. He has previously used these coordinated techniques to identify the gene that causes Leigh Syndrome French Canadian variant, a fatal metabolic disease.

       The $500,000 "genius" grant, announced Sept. 28 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is a five-year, no-strings-attached award. Twenty-three grants were given for 2004, but there is no application or interviewing procedure -- instead, candidates are nominated, evaluated, and selected through a confidential process.

       Fellows are selected for their originality, creativity, and potential.

       MEDIA CONTACT:

       John Lacey, Harvard Medical School, 617-432-0442; public_affairs@hms.harvard.edu

       HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL:

       Harvard Medical School has more than 5,000 full-time faculty working in eight academic departments based at the School's Boston quadrangle or in one of 47 academic departments at 18 Harvard teaching hospitals and research institutes. Those Harvard hospitals and research institutions include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Hospital, The CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, Children's Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Forsyth Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, VA Boston Healthcare System. See: http://www.hms.harvard.edu/


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