Memory Research Wins Grand Prize from Amersham Biosciences and Science.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

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PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 5, 2001

Amersham Biosciences and Science today announced that 27-year-old Song-Hai Shi is the 2001 Grand Prize winner of the Young Scientist Prize for his work on memory and learning. The announcement was made at an award ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Young Scientist Prize was established in 1995 to support molecular biologists in the early stages of their careers. Each year, awards are presented to one grand prize winner and winners within four geographic regions. This year, the regional prizes recognized discoveries about smallpox spread and cell motility, life after cell death, and more.

In his winning essay, Shi explains that just as weight-training strengthens muscles, learning opportunities "train" our brains to store and process massive amounts of information. According to Shi, this brain-strengthening process, described by scientists as the "long-term potentiation" of connections, may help explain how best to promote memory and learning--and, perhaps someday, why memory can falter.

Shi, now a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research associate at the University of California at San Francisco, was a graduate student from the State University of New York at Stony Brook when he first began studying brain connections called synapses. Working in the laboratory of Roberto Malinow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Shi wanted to know exactly what causes long-lasting changes in transmissions by these connections. In the brain's hippocampus region, such transmission changes help us form new memories.

In his early work, Shi demonstrated that nerve-cell stimulation--similar to the brain stimulation caused by learning--gives a signal to proteins that help the brain make connections. These proteins, called receptors, quickly relocate when the brain is stimulated and strengthened by learning. Specifically, the unleashed receptors move from the inside of nerve cells, into the branch-like arms of other nerve cells. Shi and his colleagues reported these findings in Science on June 11, 1999. The relocation of these "AMPA" type receptors requires the help of a second receptor, NMDA, Shi learned.

But, Shi wanted to know more about learning and memory. He had shown that AMPA receptors in the brain relocate in response to stimulation. Next, he wondered whether these same receptors might actually help strengthen the brain's connections and, therefore, memory. In fact, Shi found, AMPA receptors are incorporated directly into brain connections, thereby strengthening them, in response to learning opportunities. By fusing a green fluorescent protein to the AMPA receptors, he was able to track their movements, using microscopic technology. Through such research, Shi said, "We may eventually be able to answer: how do we remember?"

Andrew Carr, CEO of Amersham Biosciences, commented: "Song-Hai Shi's elegant study of receptor dynamics and synaptic plasticity demonstrates the potential of next-generation investigators, whose new ideas and enthusiasm can spark important fundamental discoveries. Through the Young Scientist Prize, Amersham Biosciences and Science seek to reward such early accomplishments, and promote further advances to benefit human welfare."

Monica Bradford, managing editor of Science, added that "breakthrough thinking by young scientists like Song-Hai Shi can trigger a chain-reaction of discovery as other researchers seek to replicate and further investigate the new findings. At Science, we are proud to be collaborating with Amersham Biosciences to support the next generation of researchers."

The five regional winners named by Amersham Biosciences and Science received $5,000 awards. Below are summaries of their essays:

EUROPE (Heidelberg, Germany)

Smallpox Spread: One of history's most devastating diseases, smallpox killed 300 million people in the 20th century before it was eradicated in 1977. How did smallpox so effectively spread from victim to victim? Research by Friedrich Frishknecht and colleagues at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, now a postdoctoral associate at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, showed that a harmless cousin of smallpox moves from cell to cell by hijacking the cell's "skeleton." This harmless virus, called vaccinia, hitches a ride on the tip of long strands of the fiber-forming protein, actin. Vaccinia then sends a signal to the cell that fools it to "open the door." When this happens, vaccinia pushes the hijacked protein strand into the cell. Because some other dangerous pathogens use a similar trick to enter cells, Frishknecht's research may help pharmaceutical makers find new ways to fight disease by stopping such processes. Frishknecht was raised in Bad Urach, Germany, and plans to pursue a career in parasitology.

EUROPE (Umea, Sweden)

Pancreatic Development and Diabetes: Understanding how the pancreas develops is important for disease research. Diabetes, affecting more than 3 percent of the world's population, occurs when something goes wrong in the pancreas so that, for example, the body may produce too little insulin, which converts sugars and starches into energy. To learn more, University of Umea researcher Asa Apelqvist began studying the signals that certain molecules send as the pancreas develops in mice. She also wanted to better understand beta-cells, which help produce insulin in the pancreas. Apelqvist, now working in the Department of Developmental Biology at the Beckman Center, Stanford University, found that the messages sent by a particular type of protein (FGFR1c) was crucial for functioning pancreatic beta cells. Mice with a defect in this protein developed diabetes, similar to the problems associated with type 2 diabetics among humans. Earlier, Apelqvist showed that other molecular messages control how various cells form or "differentiate" in the pancreas as it develops. Someday, her research might suggest a way to create beta cells for people who don't have enough to produce the insulin that our bodies need.

NORTH AMERICA (New York City)

Cell Death and Tumors: New therapies aimed at activating the body's immune system against cancerous tumors may result from work by Matthew L. Albert and colleagues at The Rockefeller University in New York City. To learn how the body fights off cancer, Albert studied an immune-system response in patients with a rare syndrome called Paraneoplastic Neuronal Degenerations (PNDs). This condition can cause cerebellar degeneration, dizziness, weakness and other symptoms as the patient's body attacks an invading tumor. Why does this happen? Albert showed that certain cells called dendrites tell "fighter cells," known as killer T cells, to get busy attacking a tumor. Specifically, a dying cell from the tumor signals a dendritic cell to consume it. The dead fragments are then presented, almost like a trophy, to the killer T cells. This prompts the killer T cells to spring into action, producing an immune-system response. More recently, Albert and his collaborator, Robert B. Darnell, have explained how the absence or presence of "helper T cells" can switch killer T cells on or off--telling them to attack or retreat. Someday, new anti-tumor therapies may involve, for example, injecting dendritic cells and dying tumor cells into a patient to turn on killer T cells. Similarly, turning off such killer T cells may suggest a route for fighting autoimmune disorders.

JAPAN

Cellular Guidance Systems: As an organism takes shape, two types of atom groups seem to direct traffic, telling cells "where they are" and "where to go," respectively. In fact, the concentration of these atom groups may act as a kind of global positioning system for cells. But, exactly how they help different cells form remains a central mystery of developmental biology. Masaki Hiramoto of Japan's National Institute of Genetics studied several possible scenarios to learn more about the function of the two cellular "traffic cops"--called morphogens and chemotropic factors. For example, he considered the idea that, during development, material secreted from the spinal cord may direct certain cells by drawing them toward it. In another scenario, he found that the receptor molecules may help steer cells by grabbing atom groups much like pulling a car's steering wheel in one direction. Finally, Hiramoto considered whether receptor molecules may grab and then redirect cells.

ALL OTHER COUNTRIES (Israel)

DNA Replication: Replication of life's blueprint, DNA, allows genetic information to be passed from cell to cell. Why do some regions replicate earlier than others, and what controls the timing of replication? Research by Itamar Simon, completed at the Hebrew University medical school, Jerusalem, Israel, helps explain the significance of the precise timing of replication events, and their role in regulating the expression of various genes. Early DNA replication correlates strongly with gene expression, and thus, replication is thought to affect the transcription of proteins. Indeed, Simon's work demonstrates that replication timing helps regulate gene expression of large genomic regions. Simon's research is continuing at The Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Information about the prize and winning essays is available via the Internet at Science Online (http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/pharmacia/prize/apbprize.shl).

Amersham Biosciences, the life sciences business of Amersham plc (LSE, NYSE, OSE: AHM), is a world leader in developing and providing integrated systems and solutions for disease research, drug development and manufacture. Our systems are used to uncover the function of genes and proteins, for the discovery and development of drugs and for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals. The customers for Amersham Biosciences' products and technology are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and research and academic institutions, principally in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Science, a leading international weekly covering all disciplines, is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific organization. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world.