Inaugural MCG Research Institute Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing 10-20 years of fundamental research leading to insights into disease prevention, progression or therapy:
Dr.
Virendra B. Mahesh, chair emeritus of the Department of Physiology and
Endocrinology and regents professor emeritus
“Dr. Mahesh is internationally recognized as a scientist who has made fundamental contributions in the field of reproductive biology and neuroendocrinology,” wrote Dr. Darrell W. Brann, associate director of the Institute of Neuroscience, in a nomination letter. Major contributions include better understanding and treatment of polycystic ovarian syndrome and advances in understanding key physiological events in reproductive biology. Dr. Mahesh’s work on polycystic ovaries earned him the American Society for the Study of Fertility’s Rubin Award in 1963.
He has served on numerous NIH committees including the Reproductive Biology Study Section and two terms on the Human Embryology and Development Study Section, which he chaired for two years.
Dr. Mahesh received the 2005 Society for the Study of Reproduction’s Distinguished Service Award. He was editor-in-chief of the society’s journal, Biology of Reproduction, from 1999-2004 and remains a consulting editor. He received the society’s 1996 Carl Hartman Award for lifelong contributions to the teaching, research and career development of young scientists.
Dr. Mahesh is a member of the board of directors of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. He received the 2001 International Biographical Centre Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to reproductive biology and was selected that year as a laureate by the Research and Advisory Board of International Biographical Centre, in Cambridge, England.
Dr. Mahesh, who joined the MCG faculty in 1959, helped establish a Ph.D. program in endocrinology in 1965. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Patna University, India; a master’s degree in chemistry and a doctorate in organic chemistry from Delhi University; and a doctorate of philosophy in biological sciences from Oxford University. He chaired the MCG Department of Physiology and Endocrinology from 1972 until his retirement in 1999. He continues to contribute to research and education.
Distinguished Research Award
recognizing significant, sustained contributions to research for at
least five years:
Dr. John D. Catravas, founding director of the Vascular Biology Center, and Dr. David H. Pashley, regents professor of oral biology and professor of physiology and endocrinology
Dr.
Catravas directs the 11-year old Vascular Biology
Center, which focuses on development, function and diseases of the extensive
vascular network. In a letter of nomination, Drs. Jennifer and David Pollock
pointed out that the MCG center was among the first in the world to focus on
vascular biology and noted that Dr. Catravas’ supportive leadership has
resulted in zero faculty losses to other universities while increasing
extramural support for research every year, placing the center consistently
among campus leaders in funding.
Dr. Catravas’ research has focused on the vascular endothelium, including the renin-angiotensin system, inflammation and endothelial function in pulmonary disease. “John has continually expanded his impact in the field of vascular biology,” the Pollocks wrote, “and, most recently, provided new information into the regulation of nitric oxide synthase during acute lung injury.”
His work has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1984. He has received numerous grants from the American Heart Association, including an Established Investigator Award.
Dr. Catravas has organized and directed eight international conferences on the vascular endothelium supported by NATO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has served on numerous grant review panels for the NIH, the American Heart Association, the American Thoracic Society and the American Lung Association.
An active teacher in the Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies, Dr. Catravas has mentored 26 postdoctoral fellows and helped establish one of the nation’s first vascular biology graduate programs. He is editor-in-chief of Vascular Pharmacology and on the editorial boards of Cardiovascular Toxicology and the American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology. His international awards include the Fogarty International Senior Fellowship Award.
Dr. Catravas, a pharmacologist, earned his doctorate from the University of Mississippi. He joined the MCG faculty in 1981 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship and a year as research associate at Yale University School of Medicine.
Dr.
Pashley’s groundbreaking research on dentin bonding has earned him wide
recognition and continuous NIH funding for the past 33 years. The author of
more than 450 scholarly articles, he is recognized internationally as a pulp
biology expert and has served as president of the pulp biology group of the
International Association for Dental Research.
“He pioneered the idea that tooth dentin was permeable to fluids and that this permeability was central to sensation, infectious diseases and tooth restoration,” Dr. John Wataha, professor of oral biology and maxillofacial pathology in the School of Dentistry, wrote in a nomination letter. “Because of his quest, we have toothpastes and mouth rinses to desensitize teeth, a reliable and practical way to bond polymers to teeth and a much better understanding of the epidemiology of pulpal infection. His work has, quite literally, saved millions from disease and pain.”
Dr. Pashley is a past recipient of the Buonocore Award and the Hollenback Memorial Prize from the Academy of Operative Dentistry and the Wilmer Souder Award for Distinguished Scientists in Dental Materials from the International Association for Dental Research. He is a fellow of the Academy of Dental Materials and received Outstanding Faculty Awards from the Schools of Graduate Studies and Dentistry.
He is a member of the American and Georgia Dental Associations, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physiological Society, the American Association of Endodontics and the International Association for Dental Research.
Dr. Pashley received his dental degree from the University of Oregon and earned a doctorate in physiology from the University of Rochester.
Mahesh Distinguished Research Award
for significant sustained contributions to research, sustained
external funding support as a NIH principal investigator and outstanding
mentoring and leadership qualities:
Dr.
Robert K. Yu, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and
Genetics and founding director of the Institute of Neuroscience
Dr. Yu, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, was lauded by his nominators as a consummate scientist, administrator and mentor.
His research focus is neurochemistry and glycobiology, particularly glycolipids found in normal and pathological brain tissue and neuropathy. He also pioneered understanding of immunopathogenic mechanisms of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy and Tay-Sachs disease. His work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, including two research project grants funded continuously since 1988, a challenge grant from the Georgia Research Alliance and several private foundations. He has co-authored three books and has authored or co-authored more than 340 research papers.
Dr. Yu has twice served as a regular member of the National Institutes of Health Study Sections and a frequent ad hoc reviewer for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the area of mental retardation. He has served as an ad hoc reviewer for the Special Emphasis Panel of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the ZRG1 Gene Therapy Inborn Errors Study Section of the NIH Center for Scientific Review. He has served two three-year terms as a member of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Advisory Board.
Dr. Yu serves as associate editor and a member of the editorial board of Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of Lipid Research and as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Neuroscience Research and Neurochemical Research. He is a member of the advisory boards of the Croatian Medical Journal, Neurologia Croatica, Journal of Biomedical Science and Journal of Oleo Chemistry. He is an invited member of the editorial board of the Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
He is president-elect of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America, founding president of the Society for Chinese Neuroscientists in America and former president of the American Society for Neurochemistry. He is a lifelong academician of Academia Sinica, the Republic of China’s premier academic institution, and a member of the advisory board of the academy’s Institute of Biological Chemistry. He founded the China-U.S. Biochemistry Admissions Program and is a consultant to the Italian Ministry of Health. He was recently appointed to Georgia’s Commission for Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood Research and Treatment.
“Despite his intense schedule and overwhelming responsibilities, Dr. Yu still makes time to provide assistance and guidance to junior faculty members,” wrote Dr. Wendy Bollinger Bollag, cell physiologist and associate professor. “He is always eager to promote the accomplishments of his faculty and ensure that they receive the recognition deserved for their activities.”
Dr. Yu earned his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Illinois in Urbana in 1967 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neurochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y. He earned a medical degree from Tokyo University in 1980 and received an honorary master of arts degree from Yale University in 1985.
Emerging Scientist Award
recognizing an individual making early, significant contributions to
science:
Dr.
Yanbin Dong, molecular geneticist and cardiologist at the Georgia
Prevention Institute
Dr. Dong, the newest faculty member receiving recognition, already is a pioneer in the molecular genetics of salt-sensitive hypertension, wrote Dr. Gregory Harshfield, director of the Georgia Prevention Institute. His work has helped demonstrate that a mutation in the epithelial sodium channel can be used to predict success of hypertension treatment. He’s collaborating with his wife, Dr. Haidong Zhu, a molecular geneticist, in the search for genetic changes that regulate hormones that cause blood vessels to constrict as well as those that increase volume inside blood vessels by retaining sodium. He’s also exploring whether genes responsible for a rare disorder called Liddle syndrome hold clues for identifying hypertension risk.
Dr. Dong has key attributes found in successful scientists: excitement about his research, unlimited energy, wisdom and patience, Dr. Harshfield wrote. His first grants were a Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association and a small NIH grant, both received in his second year at MCG. He used data generated by those grants to successfully apply for an NIH research project grant. He’s also principal investigator of the genetic core of Dr. Frank Treiber’s Program Project grant on hypertension. Dr. Dong has published 31 articles, nearly half of them during his tenure at MCG, which began in October 2002.
He earned a medical degree from Jinzhou Medical College in China in 1985 and a doctorate in molecular biology from Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing in 1995. He was a postdoctoral research scientist at Royal Liverpool University Hospital in the United Kingdom and a postdoctoral fellow in the Blood Pressure Unit/Medical Genetics Unit of St. George’s Hospital Medical School in London, where he later joined the faculty. He received the Promega Young Researcher Award and UK Young Life Scientist of the Year award from the UK Biochemical Society in 1999 and is the 2006 recipient of the MCG School of Medicine Distinguished Faculty Award for Basic Science Research.