UBC Reports | Vol. 46 | No. 20 | December
14, 2000

Scientists garner national awards

Two are among 15 to receive research award

Prof. Terry Snutch of the Biotechnology Laboratory and Prof. Philip
Hieter of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Genetics have received Senior
Scientist Awards from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research
(CIHR).

The award provides $350,000 over five years to each recipient.

Snutch, who also holds appointments in the departments of Zoology and
Psychiatry, was recognized for his contributions to the area of electrical and
chemical signaling in the brain and heart.

He has identified and characterized a class of proteins called calcium channels
that are implicated in a number of human disease states including chronic pain,
stroke, epilepsy and cardiovascular disease.

Hieter, a professor of Medical Genetics, was recognized for his investigations
of genetic control mechanisms in yeast. His work contributes to the
understanding of human genes involved in controlling both normal cell growth
and the abnormal growth seen in diseases such as cancer.

There were 15 Senior Scientist Awards given across Canada in the recent
competition.

CIHR also recently awarded Snutch the largest non-clinical operating
grant in Canada.

The grant for $1,225,000 over five years will allow his lab to continue studies
on the functional roles of calcium channels in normal brain signaling in
mammals as well in the model organism C. elegans.

CIHR is the major federal agency responsible for funding health research
in Canada.