CALABASAS HILLS, Calif., Aug. 25, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Jonathon Lin, a recent doctoral graduate of Columbia University, was awarded The ALS Association's Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The fellowship provides recent graduates the opportunity to work closely with a principle researcher in the field of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), neurodegenerative diseases or other areas relevant to ALS research.
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The inaugural, two-year fellowship is funded by Lawrence and Isabel Barnett. The Barnetts have supported The ALS Association (ALSA) for more than 20 years. Larry Barnett serves on The Association's national Board of Trustees and also served as the first chairman from 1985 to 1988.
"It is my fervent hope that this fellowship will be instrumental in finding a cure for ALS," Barnett said. "I've always felt like I needed to give back to society. We're making progress in research. Sooner or later, we'll find the answer."
Dr. Lucie Bruijn, ALSA's science director and vice president, will provide fellows guidance throughout their research period.
"This new program will greatly enhance ALSA's ability to capture the interest of excellent young scientific minds and encourage them to pursue ALS as a promising and challenging field of research," Bruijn said. "It is an honor to be guiding ALSA's research programs and I would like to thank Lawrence and Isabel Barnett for their dedicated support in lending their names to inaugurate ALSA's first Post-Doctoral Fellowship
"Mr. Barnett has generously dedicated his resources and talents to fulfill the mission of The ALS Association," said Robert Abendroth, Chairman of the Research Committee of the Board of Trustees. "He has underwritten numerous ALSA research grants and is dedicated to stamping out this disease."
The award is based on an overall competitive evaluation of each fellowship applicant's background, educational profile, training, research project proposal and demonstrated interest in the field of ALS research.
"As a young scientist, it is extremely encouraging to know that individuals and organizations are willing to support new and fresh ideas toward studying the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis," Dr. Lin said. "Through the guidance and dedication of ALSA, hopefully new approaches will emerge for curing the disease."
Dr. Lin's research project, The Role of Unfolded Protein Response in ALS Pathogenesis, seeks to understand the pathologic consequences of abnormal protein aggregates within motor neurons.
Dr. Lin earned his M.D. degree and Ph. D. degree in neurobiology from Columbia University. He received his B.A. degree in biochemistry from Harvard University. He has won several undergraduate and graduate school awards. He trained with Dr. Tom Jessell at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in New York, and co-authored two articles in Cell, a highly regarded scientific journal. One article was based on his work in Dr. Jessell's laboratory and laid the foundation for much of the current efforts in that laboratory.
During his ALSA fellowship, Dr. Lin, with the support of his principle investigator Dr. Peter Walter, will use mouse models to address the potential connection between ALS and an important cellular stress pathway to determine the mechanism of a neurodegenerative disease. He will be carrying out his research for the fellowship at the University of California San Francisco's Department of Biochemistry.
With a goal to encourage and support young scientists in the field of ALS research, the Lawrence and Isabel Barnett fellowship program is funded at $40,000 per year with a conditional third year of funding depending on progress of the research. The fellowship is a new component of ALSA's investigator-initiated research program.
The fellow will be invited to attend ALSA's Young Investigator Workshop where young scientists share information with their colleagues in an effort to initiate new collaborations and project directions to advance ALS research.
The ALS Association is the only national not-for-profit voluntary health organization devoted solely to the fight against ALS. For more information about The ALS Association, please visit www.alsa.org.
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