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Gifted Researchers Receive 2009 Glaser Award

9/18/2009

A longtime supporter of the University of Miami, the late Stanley Glaser keenly appreciated that medical innovation springs from the laboratory, and thus had a soft spot for Miller School researchers.
Glaser’s area of interest was highlighted on Wednesday, September 16, with the presentation of the 2009 Stanley J. Glaser Research Award to four exceptional young investigators. The ceremony took place in the Clinical Research Building, and recognized masterful research generated by Ren-Hua Chung, Ph.D., Kenneth Fields, Ph.D., Jacob McCauley, Ph.D., and R. Grace Zhai, Ph.D.

Chung and McCauley are both with the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, Fields is with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Zhai is with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology.

“Stanley Glaser established this research award in 1991, on his 86th birthday, to provide seed money for research,” said Marc Lippman, M.D., Kathleen and Stanley Glaser Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine. “He believed that cultivating young, creative minds is the best way to spur innovative research.

“Stanley Glaser cared so deeply that he apparently read every grant proposal -- I wish we could bring him back to do that,” Lippman added to laughter from roughly 60 people attending the awards ceremony. Lippman also chairs the Stanley J. Glaser Administrative Committee.

After the 2009 Glaser Award winners were announced in a first-floor Clinical Research Building auditorium, the award ceremony moved to the sixth floor for a luncheon that was attended by Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D.

Goldschmidt had congratulatory words for the 2009 Glaser Award recipients, including Ren-Hua Chung, who was delighted to have won a highly sought after honor that also came with a $55,000 stipend. “It really means a lot to me, because this is my first award,” Chung said.

“I would like to thank the Glaser award committee, who reviewed my grant proposal,” said Chung, whose research concentrates on developing a statistical method to detect disease genes. “Also, they gave me a lot of comments that were very helpful.”

Kenneth Fields is seeking ways to combat chlamydia trachomatis, a sexually transmitted disease that can damage a woman’s reproductive organs. “It’s a huge problem, even in the United States,” observed Fields. “Thus far, it’s resisted vaccine efforts.”

Winning the 2009 Glaser Award would enable him to pursue mechanisms that may help curtail the spread of chlamydia, Fields said.

Part of Wednesday’s award ceremony featured scientific presentations from 2008 Stanley J. Glaser Research Award recipients Antoni Barrientos, Ph.D., Victor Perez, M.D, Zhibin Chen, M.D., Ph.D., Ana Diez-Sampedro, Ph.D., Hermes Jose Florez, M.D., Ph.D., and Yanbin Zhang, Ph.D.