Goldberg
By Brendan Watson
March 2, 2001
Four School of Medicine researchers have become fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The highest honor awarded by AAAS, fellows are elected for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts on behalf of scientific advancement.
The new fellows from the medical school are Daniel E. Goldberg, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and molecular microbiology and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Jeff W. Lichtman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology; Philip D. Stahl, Ph.D., the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Professor and head of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology; and Thomas A. Woolsey, M.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology, cell biology and physiology, engineering, neurology and neurological surgery, and director of the James L. O'Leary Division of Experimental Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Goldberg |
Goldberg's research explores how the malaria parasite survives in human hosts. His internationally recognized research focuses on metabolic processes that allow the parasite to both survive and thrive in red blood cells. Understanding those processes could lead to the development of methods that inhibit malaria's ability to infect people. Currently, more than 500 million people --mostly in the developing world --have malaria. Two million child-ren die from the disease each year.
In addition to his ongoing research, Goldberg has served on the National Institutes of Health's Tropical Medicine and Parisitology Study Section of the Center for Scientific Review. He also is a past recipient of a Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Scholarship in Medical Science. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1995, received the Burroughs Wellcome Molecular Parisitology Scholars Award in 1997 and was elected to the American Association of Physicians in 2000.
 Lichtman |
Lichtman is interested in the mechanisms that underlie competition between neurons that innervate the same target cell. He has found that those competitive interactions are responsible for sharpening the patterns of neural connections during development and may also be important in learning and memory formation. He studies synaptic competition by visualizing synaptic rearrangements directly in living animals using modern microscopic and image processing techniques.
Lichtman has concentrated on neuromuscular junctions and autonomic ganglia in mice where individual nerve terminals and postsynaptic specializations can be monitored over hours or months. In addition, his laboratory has designed and built several new microscopes with the aim of improving their ability to resolve synaptic structure.
Lichtman is director of the Bakewell NeuroImaging Laboratory in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. He is a past recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience as well as a Jacob K. Javits Award from the National Institutes of Health and the Missouri Inventor of the Year Award from the Missouri Bar Association.
 Stahl |
Stahl is being honored for his contributions to understanding the mechanisms involved in endocytosis, the process through which cells absorb external substances such as proteins. These cellular processes are important to understanding a wide variety of cellular functions, from the release of hormones and neurotransmitters to the destruction of invading organisms and the removal of toxins from the blood. Stahl and colleagues discovered a cell receptor called the mannose receptor. Mannose receptors now are recognized as an integral part of the innate immune system.
Stahl is studying endocytosis and signal transduction in cancerous cells. His studies are aimed at understanding how signals for cell growth are internalized into cells and how the information is coupled into cell proliferation. Understanding these signaling pathways will lead to a better understanding of how tumor growth can be controlled therapeutically. In addition, he is investigating the ways in which pathogens and cellular debris are transported to sites inside of cells where they can be broken down and destroyed.
Stahl served as director of the University's Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences from 1989 to 1992. He was a Senior International Fogarty Foundation Fellow at Oxford University and is a recipient of a Method to Extent Research in Time Award from the National Institutes of Health.
 Woolsey |
Woolsey was honored for his discovery of the visible body map in the rodent brain. He showed that the sensory functions of individual rodent whiskers are linked to individual structures in the brain. Woolsey researches higher brain function and the control of blood flow to the brain. His studies have been important in understanding brain development and brain injury from stroke.
He also has made contributions in medical education. The medical school has honored him twice with outstanding teaching awards. He is the faculty adviser to the Young Scientist Program at the medical school, supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The program links scientists with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and works to improve science education programs in the schools. He also is president of the Academy of Science of St. Louis and a recipient of a Jacob K. Javits Award from the National Institutes of Health.
The new fellows were honored earlier this month at the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
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