James Goodrich, an assistant professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was one of 20 biomedical researchers nationwide to be named 1999 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences.
Granted by the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia to a select group of promising young biomedical researchers, the awards each carry a four-year, $200,00 grant.
Research in Goodrich聮s lab is aimed at understanding how the expression of genes is regulated in humans. Controlling levels of expression of genes is of central importance to all aspects of life, and aberrations in gene regulation cause many genetic diseases and cancers, he said.
"Our research is health-related at a basic level and the grant from Pew Charitable Trusts will allow my colleagues and I to pursue a new line of experiments we wouldn聮t otherwise be able to do."
Goodrich received his bachelor聮s degree from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the molecular and cell biology department at the University of California, Berkeley.
Six other CU-Boulder faculty members previously have been named Pew Biomedical Scholars, all from the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department. They include Professor Michael Klymowski (1985), Associate Professor Robert Boswell (1987), Assistant Professor Lorraine Pillus (1992), Associate Professor Mark Winey (1993) and Assistant Professor Jean Greenberg (1996).
Julia Cooper, a researcher at the CU Health Sciences Center in Denver, also was named a 1999 Pew Scholar.
Since 1985, the Pew Charitable Trusts have provided more than $60 million for the support of 300 junior faculty members at medical schools and research institutions across the United States. The awards are intended to encourage innovation in research by promising young investigators and help them advance the state of knowledge in the biomedical sciences by offering assured support as they work to establish their laboratories.
This year, nominations were received from more than 100 institutions and scholars were chosen by a 16-member national advisory committee.
The Pew Charitable Trusts support nonprofit activities in the areas of conservation and the environment, culture, education, health and human services, public policy and religion.