Etcetera

Erica Ollmann Saphire Wins Burroughs Wellcome Infectious Disease Award
Erica Ollmann Saphire, associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute, has won an Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a prestigious award supporting the career of a researcher who is working on understanding the interactions between human host and infectious agent. The award will support Ollmann Saphire's research on the architecture, receptor binding sites, and immune recognition of arenaviruses, which cause Lassa fever and a number of other hemorrhagic diseases. The award is Ollmann Saphire's second from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; she also received the 2003 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences.

Barbara Mason Receives Weill Cornell Alumni Award
Scripps Research Professor Barbara Mason has received the 2009 Weill Cornell Alumni Award from the NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center Alumni Council. The award acknowledges Mason's flourishing career and success since she was affiliated with the medical college as an assistant attending psychologist in psychiatry from 1987 to 1991; the award describes Mason as a "pioneering researcher, distinguished scholar, outstanding mentor, and internationally renowned expert in the field of alcohol dependence." In her investigations at Scripps Research, Mason is exploring the physiological changes in the brain that drive excessive drinking and create vulnerability to relapse, as well as investigating the viability of utilizing new compounds to modulate the neurological effects of alcohol, reduce excessive intake, and prevent relapse.

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