1. Donald F. Steiner, MD, the A.N. Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago , has been awarded the Manpei Suzuki Diabetes Prize for 2009. The prize is the largest for diabetes research. It honors “those who have enlightened researchers in the field of diabetes around the world with their original and excellent scientific achievements.” It includes a certificate of honor, a Japanese objet d’art and $150,000. Steiner, a 1956 graduate of the University of Chicago School of Medicine, will receive the prize and present a commemorative lecture at the award ceremony on 2 March 2010. In 1965, Steiner described how insulin is made from proinsulin, the first “pro-hormone”. He showed that insulin was produced as a single chain that was then cleaved to release the two-chain insulin molecule and a new peptide, the C-peptide. He also characterized the proinsulin processing pathway in the β-cells of the islets of Langerhans. As the first prohormone, it launched inquiry into how secretory proteins are manufactured and processed in cells. It was also a key finding for the manufacture of synthetic human insulin used therapeutically today. Donald Steiner, whose photo is shown below, served as a mentor for many graduate students including Robert Roskoski Jr. 

2. The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research is now an affiliate of Research!America. To see a list of the other affiliates and supporters, click here.

3. As was predicted on these pages in September, Elizabeth H. Blackburn (UCSF) and Carol W. Greider (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine), the discoverers of telomerase (the enzyme that is essential for the duplication of the ends of chromosomes, or telomeres), received the Nobel Prize for their work. Jack W. Szostak (Harvard Medical School), who studied the biology of telomeres, was the third recipient of this year's prize. Thomas A. Steitz (Yale University) and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge England) were two of the three recipients of the Chemistry prize. Elizabeth Blackburn is shown in the following photo taken at an American Association for Cancer Research conference on 11 October 2009. 

The following photos show some of the 2009 laureates at the Nobel Award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 2009.  

4. The following paper has been accepted for publication: "The biosynthesis of N-arachidonoyl dopamine (NADA), a putative endocannabinoid and endovanilloid, via conjugation of arachidonic acid with dopamine". This paper appears in Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. You can access this paper by clicking here. This research represents an international collaboration involving five institutions. We note with regret that one of the senior investigators in this study, Dr. J. Michael Walker, died as a result of congestive heart failure on 5 January 2008. He  was only 57 years of age. 

5. WCQS and WYQS, Western North Carolina Public Radio Stations that make up the Mountain Air Network, featured the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research on 14 October 2008. The Mountain Air Network featured the Institute again on 14 September 2009.

6. Robert Roskoski Jr. attended a meeting of the University of Chicago School of Medicine Class of 1964 on 5 June 2009. For a look at some of the photos, click here.

7. Robert Roskoski Jr. attended a symposium near the NIH in Bethesda in honor of Earl R. Stadtman on 29 April 2009. Dr. Stadtman received his PhD under the tutelage of HA Barker at  the University of California at Berkeley and was a postdoctoral associate of Dr. Fritz Lipmann at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Click here for a view of the program and links to additional information on Dr. Stadtman. 

8. The following paragraph describes the establishment of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Fritz Lipmann Lectureship in 1987-1988. The paragraph was taken from "The ASBMB Centennial History" by Ralph A. Bradshaw, Charles C. Hancock, and Nicole Kresge (ISBN 1-893571-09-2) published in 2009. 

9. Hendersonville, NC was named among the top 10 small towns in the South in the January 2009 issue of Southern Living magazine. Click here for a look at the first page of the article. 

10. Robert Roskoski Jr. resides in Hendersonville, North Carolina. A web site promotes Hendersonville as the most friendly city in America. 

11. Robert Roskoski Jr. was featured in the People Section of the 15 September 2008 issue of C&E (Chemical and Engineering) News. Click here for a look at this section. 

.

Important questions in research posed by two investigators. 

          What is the mechanism? – Fritz Lipmann

          What is the evidence? or Vot iss de effidence? A.J. Carlson