A professor in the Department of Bi...

A professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, according to a Feb 15 2000 pres release. The King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam, Islamic Studies, Arabic Literature, Science, and Medicine is part of the King Faisal Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the Middle East.

Professor Cynthia Jane Kenyon PhD received this award for her research in succession the topic of aging. Kenyon has shown for the first time that the aging proces is controll hormonally within the insulin receptor system.

Kenyon chose to meditation the Caenorhabditis elegans, a worm known to posses more than 19000 gene These worms ofttimes are used in scientific research and are easy to subject of attention due to their transparency. The choice of this worm allowed Kenyon to identify gene that are conserv in higher animals, including man.

Other researchers have focused upon the molecular changes associated with caloric restriction, the sole effective way of extending the life span of organisms ranging from yeast to mammals. Kenyon's findings are in agreement with these studies, thus, a detailed outline of the nature of aging now exists. More importantly, aging now can be considered a proces amenable to the possibility of hormone-based therapeutic intervention.

Winners Announced for King Faisal International Prizes (pres release, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: King Faisal International Prize, Feb 15 2000)

COPYRIGHT 2000 Association of Operating place Nurses, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group