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MGH research award helps women establish scientific careers

02-26-2007 · EurekAlert!

A program that provides modest research funding to women initiating careers in medical research has produced significant results in helping recipients both stay in academic research and establish groundwork for securing future research funding.

Keywords: mgh, research, award, women, establish, scientific, careers, career

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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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Gender roles and not gender bias hold back women scientists
11-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
Traditional roles of women in the home and a negative bias in workplace support result in less career success for women versus men at the same stage of their research careers, determined researchers at the European Molecular Biology Organization in a study appearing in the November 2007 issue of EMBO reports.
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More women students choose engineering -- but not as a career
01-17-2007 · EurekAlert!
While more women today are studying engineering, many use it as a launch base for a variety of other careers, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
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Residual fetal cells in women may provide protection against breast cancer
10-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
Fetal cells that persist in a woman's body long after pregnancy -- a common occurrence known in scientific circles as fetal microchimerism -- in some cases may reduce the woman's risk of breast cancer, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
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New study says women and their managers differ on career advancement in chemical companies
03-22-2007 · EurekAlert!
During this Women's History Month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a report called It's Elemental, the results of a three-year study of women's careers in the chemical industry. The first study of its kind, the findings reveal that women and their managers have differing attitudes and perceptions about career advancement.
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Scientific research on sense of humor sheds light on psychological profiles
06-14-2007 · EurekAlert!
The researcher analysed more than 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 80 and a similar number of men and women. The study concludes that there are no universally good or bad jokes for both women and men, and points out that women have changed their humorous preferences.
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Women in Science High School Career Day at Brookhaven Lab
04-11-2007 · Brookhaven National Laboratory
Forty female students recently learned first-hand about careers in science and related fields from female researchers at Brookhaven Lab. High school career days are held at the Laboratory to inspire young women to think about careers in science.
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Iowa State University, Great Ape Trust create world's pre-eminent collaboration for primate studies
08-27-2007 · EurekAlert!
Officials from Great Ape Trust of Iowa and Iowa State University signed a memorandum of agreement today at the trust's bonobo scientific research center to establish the world's pre-eminent collaboration for primate studies. The agreement, based on the shared scientific and ethical values of primate research, recognizes multiple benefits to both institutions.
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Pulmonary hypertension discriminates by race, gender
10-24-2006 · EurekAlert!
African-American women have the highest mortality rate for idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, according to new research presented at CHEST 2006, the 72nd annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians.
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Scientific research on sense of humour sheds light on psychological profiles
06-14-2007 · EurekAlert!
The researcher analysed more than 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 80 and a similar number of men and women. The study concludes that there are no universally good or bad jokes for both women and men, and points out that women have changed their humorous preferences.
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