Newswise — PHILADELPHIA—Walter J. Koch, Ph.D., F.A.H.A., The W.W. Smith Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, will be awarded the prestigious “Outstanding Investigator Award” for 2011 by the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) for his work in heart failure gene therapy.
The purpose of this award is to recognize an outstanding scientist who is making major and independent contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science, and is leading a growing research program likely to play a major role in the future.
The award is presented at the meeting of the ISHR section to which the winner belongs. Titled “Developing Novel Heart Failure Therapeutics,” the ISHR’s 32nd North American Section Meeting is being held in Philadelphia and presented by Jefferson’s Center for Translational Medicine and Temple University School of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Research Center.
Dr. Koch will receive the award on May 24, and give a lecture on his work with cardiovascular adrenergic receptors and the role it plays in heart disease: “Is it translation or perseverance? GRK2 and S100A1 as targets for heart failure gene therapy.”
“It’s a great honor to receive this award and be recognized for the work my laboratory has accomplished,” Dr. Koch said. “We’re uncovering the roles of various molecular mechanisms to help develop new heart failure therapies for patients. This acknowledgement by the ISHR highlights those important efforts and enables us to take our work in genetically-targeted therapy even further.”
ISHR’s goal is to promote the discovery and dissemination of knowledge in the cardiovascular sciences on a world-wide basis through publications, congresses and other media.
Over 60 researchers in cardiovascular biology and medicine from all over the world will speak at the meeting during plenary talks, lectures, and poster presentations. Topics at the meeting, which is being co-chaired by Dr. Koch and Steven R. Houser., Ph.D, F.A.H.A., director of the Temple’s Cardiovascular Research Center, include novel gene therapy approaches, recent advances in cell-based therapies, and research on model organisms for heart failure discovery.
Dr. Koch received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Cell Biophysics in 1990 in the lab of Dr. Arnold Schwartz at the University of Cincinnati. Following this, he began a Howard Hughes Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz at Duke University Medical Center. In 1995, he was recruited to start a molecular cardiovascular biology laboratory in the Department of Surgery at Duke. While a faculty member at Duke, Dr. Koch rose quickly and became a tenured full professor of surgery within six years of starting his independent laboratory.
Dr. Koch moved to Jefferson in 2003 to build the Center for Translational Medicine, where he has recruited 12 primary tenure-track faculty. These faculty members, under Dr. Koch’s leadership, carry out basic and translational studies in cardiovascular disease. The laboratory is currently investigating molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of signaling through cardiovascular adrenergic receptors and the role this plays in heart disease, primarily heart failure. The lab's research primarily targets a family of kinases known to regulate adrenergic receptors and other G protein-coupled receptors, known as the GPCR kinases.
In addition, the ISHR awarded Thomas Force, M.D., the James C. Wilson Professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College and Clinical Director at the Center for Translational Medicine, the Janice Pfeffer Distinguished Lecture. His lecture will be delivered at the Japanese Section meeting in Tokyo in December.
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