ENEA-Awards
ENEA Young Investigator Awards 2002
The two ENEA Young Investigator Awards have been awarded to two European scientists under the age of 40 who have made outstanding contributions in the field of neuroendocrinology. The selection of prize winners has been undertaken by a jury consisting of the members of the Executive Committee of the ENEA. The presentation of the Prizes and the Prize Lectures took place during the ENEA 2002 congress in Munich.
The ENEA 2002 Young Investigator Prize for Basic Research (3.500 Euro) was awarded to Uberto Pagotto, researcher of the Endocrinology Unit of the Santa Orsola-Malpighi General Hospital in Bologna, Italy.
Uberto
Pagotto has discovered new functions for factors expressed in pituitary
and other brain tumours, increasing our understanding of the molecular
and cellular mechanisms that control cell proliferation and hormone production.
He contributed to defining the role and importance of the pituitary gland
as an integrating point to coordinate different physiological processes. Abstract
The ENEA 2002 Young Investigator Prize for Clinical Research (3.500 Euro) was awarded to Matthias Tschöp, assistant professor at the German Institute of Human Nutrition and clinical fellow at the Endocrine Department of the Benjamin Franklin University Hospital in Berlin, Germany.
Matthias
Tschöp has discovered the role of ghrelin in the control of body weight
and described the endocrine mechanisms which mediate these effects. His
work is an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of the complex neuroendocrine
circuits that control energy homeostasis under different clinical conditions. Abstract
ENEA Poster Prizes
Among the submitted abstracts presented as posters, the Poster Committee selected two basic and two clinical posters for an award (200 Euro each).
The poster prizes for basic research were awarded to S. de Carli et al. (Max-Planck-Institute, Munich, Germany) for the poster entitled "Role of CREB during embryonic and postnatal rat brain development: differential patterns of CREB phosphorylation and neurogenesis" and to M. Backberg et al. (Karolinska Institut, Stockholm, Sweden) for the poster "Chemical coding of GABAB receptor-immunoreactive neurons in hypothalamic regions regulating body weight".
The poster prizes for clinical research were awarded to N. Karavitaki N. et al. (Evangelismos Hospital, Athens, Greece) for the poster entitled " Evaluation of the gh secretory reserve in adult patients with cushing's sundrome before and after correction of cortisol excess" and to P. Putignano (University of Milan, Italy) for the poster " Midnight salivary cortisol vs conventional tests in the screening for Cushing's disease".
2002 Foundation IPSEN Prize in Endocrinology
The first Foundation IPSEN Prize in Endocrinology entitled Endocrine Communication and Regulation was awarded to Wylie Vale, Professor and Head of the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, CA, USA).
Wylie
Vale is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Institute
of Medicine and of the US National Academy of Sciences. He and his collaborators
have discovered or co-discovered molecules critical to neuroendocrine and
neural signaling, including CRF, three urocortins, CRF receptors, GRF,
activin and activin receptors. They have established the neuroendocrine
significance of these hormones and cloned the first CRF receptor as well
as a modulatory binding protein. Abstract
The jury in charge of awarding the prize was chaired by C. Kordon (F), and composed of 12 members: X. Bertagna (F), M. Conn (USA), R. C. Gaillard (CH), E. Ghigo (I), F. Holsboer (D), I. Huhtaniemi (FIN), P. Jaquet (F), S. Lamberts (NL), S. Lightman (GB), I. Robinson (GB), R. Steiner (USA), R. Weiner (USA).
The Awarding Ceremony and Prize Lecture took place at the ENEA meeting 2002.