Honorary Lifetime Membership Award Honors Her Pivotal Contributions to Cytokine Research
Newswise — NEW YORK (Oct. 11, 2011) -- Dr. Laurie Glimcher, the incoming dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, has received the 2011 International Cytokine Society (ICS) Honorary Lifetime Membership, the Society's highest honor, for her pivotal contributions to cytokine research, particularly as it relates to immune response.
Cytokines are protein molecules secreted by the nervous system and immune system that are used in intercellular communication.
The award will be presented at the joint yearly ICS/ International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR) international conference in Florence, Italy, on Oct. 10. The focus of the meeting is cytokine-specific lymphocyte subtypes, which is Dr. Glimcher's specialty.
"I am thrilled to receive this honor from my peers at the International Cytokine Society," says Dr. Glimcher, who is currently the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The field of cytokine research holds much promise for understanding immune responses underlying autoimmune, infectious, allergic and malignant diseases."
Dr. Glimcher's laboratory has studied ways to control the production of small hormone-like mediators called cytokines in order to elucidate the regulatory pathways that control important immune checkpoints that regulate lymphocyte development. Notably, her laboratory defined the genetic bases of cytokine expression in T helper lymphocytes.
Dr. Glimcher currently directs the Division of Biological Sciences program at the Harvard School of Public Health and is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she has headed one of the top immunology programs in the world. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She is also a member and past president of the American Association of Immunologists, which awarded her the Huang Meritorious Career Award in 2006 and the Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2008. She was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, from which she received the Outstanding Investigator Award in 2001, and to the American Association of Physicians and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Among her numerous awards are the American Association of University Women Senior Scholar Award (2006); American College of Rheumatology Distinguished Investigator Award (2006); Dean's Award for Leadership in the Advancement of Women Faculty at Harvard Medical School (2006); the Klemperer Award from the New York Academy of Medicine (2003); the American Society of Clinical Investigation Outstanding Investigator Award (2001); and the FASEB Excellence in Science Award (2000).
The International Cytokine SocietyEstablished in 1988, the International Cytokine Society (ICS) consists of persons who have research, clinical or educational experience in the field of cytokines or in an allied discipline. The main purposes of the Society are to promote original research in the fields of cytokines, growth factors and receptors and to facilitate communication and interaction between scientists aimed at the multidisciplinary integration of current basic and clinical knowledge and concepts in the study of cytokines.
Weill Cornell Medical CollegeWeill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.
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