Applications now available for 2010 award
The 2010 HudsonAlpha Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Life Sciences will award a current faculty member or staff scientist at one of Alabama’s six public research universities a $20,000 monetary award and certificate. Each research university president may nominate up to two candidates/teams who have recently effected advancements in the life sciences that provide significant, practical implications in biotechnology or biomedicine. These achievements should reflect great promise for further development and benefit to mankind. Nominations recognizing efforts that are already delivering on that promise are especially welcome.
The 2009 HudsonAlpha Prize was awarded to Dr. Casey T. Weaver of the University of Alabama in Birmingham for discovery of the Th17 lineage and its link to T cells. This work has great importance with respect to the mechanism of immune regulation and the understanding of immune-related diseases. The 2008 prize– the inaugural prize– was awarded to Drs. Kim and Guy Caldwell of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, for their application of genomic screening by RNAi in conjunction with biological assays for protein misfolding and neurodegeneration. Their work uncovered the largest reported functionally defined set of genes that protect dopamine neurons from dying during aging, a hallmark of Parkinson disease.
The annual prize is funded through a grant from the Alpha Foundation. The 2010 award ceremony is anticipated to occur in late April.