Comments,
story ideas
Click here to
e-mail the Record
|
|
|
Comments,
story ideas Click here to e-mail the Record |
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
DiAntonio receives research-development award
By Gila Z. Reckess Aaron DiAntonio, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular biology and pharmacology, has been named one of five 2002 Keck Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research. DiAntonio will receive $1 million in research support over the next five years. Since joining the School of Medicine in 1999, DiAntonio has been investigating the development of connections between nerve cells in the fruit fly. Having been the first to discover that a gene known as highwire helps determine the number of connections between nerve cells in the fly, he now wants to explore the gene's role in vertebrate animals, starting with mice. "The National Institutes of Health does a wonderful job supporting medical research, but it's unlikely to fund a young fruit fly investigator who wants to study mice, particularly with an ambitious project like this one," DiAntonio said. "But the Keck Award is geared toward doing just that -- allowing young scientists to explore new avenues. It's a thrill and an honor to get this award, and I really appreciate the opportunity it will provide to take my research in new directions." DiAntonio earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1988 and medical and doctoral degrees from Stanford University Medical School in 1995. DiAntonio already has received several awards and honors in recognition of his research, including the McKnight Scholar Award and the Burroughs Welcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences. He is also this year's Sloan Research Fellow. The W.M. Keck Foundation chose DiAntonio based on his "demonstrated ability to carry forward groundbreaking basic medical research, the potential for this research to make a significant impact in the field of biomedicine and (his) capacity for future academic leadership." |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
