NSF PR 03-58 - May 14, 2003

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From Cell-Cycle Secrets to NSF's Waterman Award Amon Earns Top Honor for Young Scientists


Angelika Amon, cellular biologist, recipient of NSF's 2003 Alan T. Waterman Award
Photo Credit: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

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ARLINGTON, Va.— Angelika Amon, a cancer researcher caught up in the cell cycle, will receive the National Science Foundation's (NSF) highest honor for young scientists and engineers at a May 21 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Amon explores how chromosomes--which carry an organism's genes in organized arrays--are duplicated and partitioned prior to cell division. For this and similar research, she will receive NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award. Established in 1975 and named for NSF's first director, the annual award honors an outstanding young scientist with a medal and a $500,000 grant to continue his or her scientific pursuits. Amon is the fourth woman to receive the Waterman Award and the third recipient from MIT.

Though Amon's findings are based on studies with yeast, they could help researchers better understand tumors, birth defects and miscarriages.

According to NSF Director Rita Colwell, "Serious inquiries into basic scientific questions, such as Dr. Amon’s work, are of immense value. While it's not always clear where such rigorous explorations will lead nor what their ultimate returns to humanity will be, it is vital to humanity that we embark upon them."

A faculty member of the Center for Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1999, Amon is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Born in Austria in 1967, she earned her bachelor's and doctoral degrees at the University of Vienna. She first came to the U.S. in 1994 for postdoctoral studies.

As one HHMI colleague puts it, her papers are "classics," and her studies "completely reoriented the cell-cycle field."

Amon examines the intricate mechanisms of two key processes in cell reproduction: mitosis and meiosis. In mitosis, a "mother" cell divides into two "daughter" cells, each with an identical, full set of chromosomes. In meiosis, specialized cells used in sexual reproduction--called gametes--are created. Each gamete carries a unique, single set of chromosomes; for example, in many organisms, including mammals, males gametes are sperm, and female gametes are eggs.

For a cell to replicate exactly (and then exactly again after that), the chromosomes must be duplicated and a copy placed in each daughter cell—before the daughter cells divide and go their separate ways. It takes a precisely choreographed biochemical ballet as various molecules inhibit, activate, bind and regulate the movements of chromosomal materials.

Taking her own delicate technical steps in the lab, Amon discovered that the routine involves chromosome regulators themselves being regulated by a mechanism called "spindle position checkpoint." In the successful partitioning of chromosomes in new cells, timing is everything. Daughter cells do not do well if they make their "mitotic exit" without first receiving an exactly full complement of chromosomes.

According to Amon, "The analysis of the yeast cell cycle is only the first step in our efforts to unravel the controls that govern cell-cycle progression."

Her lab's long-term goals are to test whether these mechanisms also operate in mammalian cells and to determine what role they play in tumor formation or aneuploidy, the condition of missing or extra chromosomes.

In researching meiosis, the basic machinery of which remains similar from yeast to humans, Amon and her colleagues hope to determine how chromosomes are accurately transmitted to gametes. Faulty transmission, she says, is a major cause of birth defects and the leading cause of miscarriages.

Colleagues call her work "elegant" and cite her "unerring eye for the key problems" and "energy enough for a small army." She says the key is persistence.

"It is quite clear," she says, "if a cell really cares about something it has several layers of control mechanisms that can make sure that this cell-cycle event is regulated correctly. Peeling off these many different layers can be quite tedious."

In the day-to-day effort, she sets incremental goals for herself and her students, including that they "learn a thing or two about the cell cycle." But she also has dreams of helping to understand the causes of cancer and how it can be prevented.

"I'm a firm believer that it is basic research that will uncover cures for disease," she says, citing the work of Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered how the human body fights bacterial infections and shared the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1945 for his role in the discovery of penicillin.

(The 1997 recipient of the NSF's Waterman award, Eric Cornell, shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for fundamental studies into a newly discovered state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate.)

"The Waterman Award allows the National Science Foundation to demonstrate its faith in pioneering efforts pursued by our most promising young scientists. With her energy, creative ideas, technical acumen and willingness to share what she discovers, Angelika Amon exemplifies this spirit of discovery among the latest generation of scientists. NSF is honored to help foster her future," Colwell said.

-NSF-

Alan T. Waterman Award Recipient: Angelika Amon, Center for Cancer Research, MIT; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; (617) 258-8964, [email protected]

Attachment: Fact sheet on the National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award

Background resources on the web:

Profile of Amon's work
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/amon.html

A full list of Waterman recipients:
www.nsf.gov/nsb/awards/waterman/waterman_recipients.htm

Solicitation brochure for nominations:
www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02164/nsf02164.htm

Nomination form:
www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02164/form1123.pdf

News releases regarding recent Waterman awardees:

2002 – Erich Jarvis, Duke University, neurobiology
www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/02/pr0231.htm

2001 - Vahid Tarokh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wireless communications
www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr0135.htm

2000 - Jennifer Doudna, Yale, biochemistry
www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/00/pr0019.htm

1999 - Chaitan Khosla, Stanford, chemical engineering
www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/99/pr9922.htm

1998 - Christopher C. Cummins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, inorganic chemistry www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/ma9811.htm

1997 - Eric A. Cornell, University of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology, physics
www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/ma4-22.htm

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5 billion. National Science Foundation funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 30,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 10,000 new funding awards. The National Science Foundation also awards over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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Useful National Science Foundation Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
News Highlights: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa
Newsroom: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/start.htm
Science Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm
Awards Searches: http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a6/A6Start.htm

Fact Sheet: National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award

Background. The National Science Foundation's (NSF) annual Alan T. Waterman Award honors an outstanding young U.S. scientist or engineer. The honoree receives a grant of $500,000 over three years for scientific research or advanced study in any field of science, plus a medal and other recognition.

Public Law 94-86 of the 94th Congress established the Waterman Award on August 9, 1975 to mark the 25th anniversary of the NSF and to honor its first director, Alan T. Waterman.

Criteria. A candidate must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, 35 years of age or younger, or not more than seven years beyond receiving a Ph.D. by December 31 of the year in which nominated. The candidate should have demonstrated exceptional individual achievements in scientific or engineering research of sufficient quality to be placed at the forefront of his or her peers. Criteria also include originality, innovation and a significant impact on the individual's field.

Candidates. Nominations come from responses to a solicitation letter sent to about 150 universities and colleges; scientific, engineering and other professional societies and organizations; and members of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. The solicitation is also made available on the NSF web site.

Using a special nomination form, respondents nominate candidates who, in their judgment, have made outstanding contributions in science or engineering that put them in the forefront of their respective fields early in their careers.

Selection. The Waterman Award Committee reviews all nominations and supporting documentation; it then forwards a recommendation of the most outstanding candidate to the NSF director and to the National Science Board for a final determination.

Recipients. The 2003 recipient of the Waterman Award is Angelika Amon, a cell biologist from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Other recent recipients include the following:


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