Douglas C. Wallace, Ph.D., director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, will receive the 2012 Genetics Prize of The Gruber Foundation. This prestigious international awarda $500,000 prizerecognizes Wallace's pioneering scientific investigations of the wide-ranging role of mitochondria in the development of disease and as markers of human evolution. Mitochondria are the tiny power plants within the cytoplasm of animal and plant cells.
Wallace will receive the award on November 9 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in San Francisco. The Gruber Foundation, now based at Yale University, announced the Genetics Prize on June 28. The Foundation's Genetics Prize annually honors leading scientists for groundbreaking contributions to genetics research.
Philip R. Johnson, MD, chief scientific officer at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, acknowledged Wallace's achievements, saying, "The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute is privileged to number Douglas Wallace among our research leaders. His commitment to the field of mitochondrial genetics and his pioneering nature embody the mission of research at CHOP, and his research and leadership are shaping the way we approach therapies for genetic disorders previously considered beyond treatment."
"Douglas Wallace's contributions to our understanding of mitochondrial genetics have changed the way human and medical geneticists think about the role of mitochondria in human health and disease," said Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, chair of the Selection Advisory Board to the Prize. Blackburn, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, also received the Gruber Genetics Prize in 2006.
Wallace, who came to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 2010 to launch the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine, first achieved prominence in the 1970s as the leader of a r
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| Contact: Dana Mortensen mortensen@email.chop.edu 267-426-6067 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Source:Eurekalert |