Dr Sanjay Kumar, MD, PhD has been named the winner of the Young
Investigator Award by the journal STEM
CELLS for leading research into the microenvironmental
regulation of neural stem cells. The $10,000 prize is awarded annually
to a young scientist whose paper has been judged to be of worldwide
significance by a global jury.
“One of the most exciting recent developments in stem cell biology is
the recognition that self-renewal and differentiation can be controlled
by biophysical cues encoded in the cellular microenvironment,” said Dr
Kumar, from the University of California, Berkeley. “However, this
potentially powerful handle for controlling stem cell behavior in tissue
engineering and regenerative medicine systems, has been hampered by
uncertainty over several open questions.”
The award winning paper addresses those question by exploring adult
hippocampal neural stem cells, which play key roles in learning, memory
and are disrupted by several neurodegenerative diseases. The findings
offer new insights into our understanding of microenvironmental
regulation of neural stem cell behavior.
The award will be announced officially at the World
Stem Cell Summit, which will be held at West Palm Beach, Florida,
between 3 and 5 December.
“The Young Investigator Award seeks to recognize the groundbreaking work
of the new generation of scientists advancing stem cell research”, said
STEM CELLS editor Dr Jan A. Nolta, PhD. “New discoveries, such as Dr
Kumar’s into the fundamental questions surrounding microenvironmental
regulation, lay a theoretical groundwork which will have a vital impact
on many kinds of malignant or degenerative disorders.”
The winning paper can be read here.
