2010 Best Paper Awards

The Science Unbound Foundation has announced its 2011 award winners for best scientific papers by investigators at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the New York Obesity Research Center at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The awards, plaque and cash prizes are for works published in 2010 in the areas of obesity, nutrition and statistical science.

 

Jeffery Szychowski, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Biostatistics, was awarded best paper by a UAB-based investigator in the area of general statistics. His paper, “Patient death as a censoring event or competing risk event in models of nursing home placement”, was published February 10, 2010 in Statistics in Medicine, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sim.3797.

 

Gustavo de los Campos, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Section on Statistical Genetics in UAB’s Department of Biostatistics, was awarded best paper by UAB-based investigator in the area of statistical genetics. His paper, “Predicting genetic predisposition in humans: the promise of whole-genome markers” was published November 20, 2010 in Nature Reviews Genetics,http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/nrg2898.

 

Yuanyuan Li, Ph.D. & Trygve O. Tollefsbol, Ph.D., research assistant professor and professor (respectively) in UAB’s Department of Biology, were jointly awarded best paper by UAB-based investigator in the area of obesity or nutrition. Their paper, “Glucose restriction can extend normal cell lifespan and impair precancerous cell growth through epigenetic control of hTERT and p16 expression” published in the May 2010 issue of FASEB Journal, http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.09-149328.

 

Anthony Ferrante Jr, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine, was awarded best paper on obesity-related research by an investigator affiliated with the New York Obesity Research Center. His paper, “Weight loss and Lipolysis promote a dynamic immune response in murine adipose tissue” was published in the October 2010 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation,http://dx.doi.org/10.1172/JCI42845.

 

Jessica Alvarez, recent graduate from UAB’s Department of Nutrition Sciences’ PhD program, was awarded best paper by a UAB student in obesity-related research. Her paper, “Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and parathyroid hormone are independent determinants of wholebody insulin sensitivity in women and may contribute to lower insulin sensitivity in African Americans” was published in the July 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.110.000976.

 

The institutions named in the awards were selected on the basis of their demonstrated strength at promoting careers of young investigators in the areas of obesity, nutrition and statistical science.