On Friday, Oct. 2, the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon will celebrate four outstanding scientists at a ceremony held at Vey Auditorium in OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. These awards are among the state’s highest honors in biomedical science and are open to faculty in Oregon’s public universities.
Everyone is welcome and no registration is required. This year, the awardees are being announced in advance of the ceremony so that colleagues, family and supporters of the winners can make time to attend.
The program starts at 4:30 p.m. with a reception following at 5:45 p.m., in the Vey Auditorium of Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
Marian Hettiaratchi, Ph.D. – Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award
Hettiaratchi, the Lary Simpson Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Oregon at the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, is a full member of the Materials Science Institute, and is an associate member of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Institute of Neuroscience. Hettiaratchi’s research draws on bioengineering, materials science, molecular biology and neuroscience. Her lab focuses on developing hydrogel-based controlled release systems, leveraging peptides with protein-binding affinities. This innovative technology addresses significant challenges in therapeutic delivery for a wide range of biomedical applications, from spinal cord injury treatments to bone regeneration. These findings are transforming regenerative medicine by offering highly controlled delivery systems that improve the effectiveness of protein-based therapies.
John Seeley, Ph.D. – Discovery Award
Seeley is the Castle-McIntosh-Knight Professor of Education and executive director of the HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. He is also a scientist emeritus at the Oregon Research Institute and a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Behavioral Intervention Strategies. Seeley is an internationally recognized expert in developmental psychopathology whose scholarship has focused on the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of mental health conditions, including substance misuse and suicidality among youth and young adults. His team’s groundbreaking work has focused on developing, testing and scaling up effective school and community-based behavioral health interventions. His paradigm-changing work on behavioral interventions has helped to improve the behavioral health of youth and young adults not only here in Oregon, but across the world.
Nabil Alkayed, M.D., Ph.D. – Mentor Award
Alkayed is professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and director of research in the Knight Cardiovascular Institute at OHSU. He is also the James Metcalf Chair in Cardiovascular Research. He is the director of the T32 Training Program in Translational Science and Cardiovascular Research. Alkayed is a strong advocate of physician-scientist career development and bench-to-bedside clinical translation. He has been highly effective in mentoring physicians and in building bridges between physicians and scientists to promote collaborations and clinical translation. He structured the T32 to require projects and fellows to have both scientific and clinical mentors, and to encourage busy physicians to partner with scientists in mentoring fellows, which has been enriching to mentors and fellows.
David Lewinsohn, M.D., Ph.D. – Mentor Award
Lewinsohn is professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the OHSU School of Medicine and at the Portland Veteran’s Administration. In addition to mentoring the students and early-career researchers in his own laboratory, Lewinsohn is the principal investigator for the T32 Training grant in his division, where the team works to promote pulmonary medicine across the OHSU and sponsored both pre-and postdoctoral scholars. These are roles in which he has shown outstanding dedication to creating the best possible environment for training future physicians and scientists. Lewinsohn is also the director of the Center for Global Child Health Research, which is focused on collaborative research in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of childhood infection.
To learn more about the awardees and their work, visit the MRF website.
