Clinical Chemistry 52: 1450-1455, 2006;
10.1373/clinchem.2006.074146
(Clinical Chemistry. 2006;52:1450-1455.)
© 2006 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.
The Clinical Chemist
David E. Bruns, Editor
(dbruns{at}clinchem.aacc.org)
AACC Award Recipients, 2006
AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry, Sponsored by Bayer HealthCare Diagnostics Division
Helen M. Free, DSc, has spent her entire scientific career of more than 60 years at Bayer Healthcare Diagnostics Division (formerly Miles Laboratories) in Elkhart, Indiana, where she continues as a professional relations consultant in the diabetes care division. Her work has ranged from her start as a control chemist, to senior new products manager of microbiological test systems, to director of specialty test systems, to director of marketing services. In addition, she has taught management at Indiana University at South Bend for 20 years.
Dr. Free has served AACC in many capacities, including 2 terms on the board of directors; as a member of the Professional Relations Commission, Nominating Committee, and Public Relations Committee; as chair of the Committee on Divisional Affairs and Chicago Section; and as president in 1990. She is a past president of the National Registry of Certified Chemists and is a 50-year member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), serving as president in 1993. The ACS presented her with its Garvan Medal for distinguished service to chemistry by a woman and, in her honor, instituted the Helen M. Free Award in Public Outreach in 1995 (she was the first recipient). She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemists, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Dr. Al Free, her late husband of nearly 53 years, was also a Bayer chemist. Together, they are enshrined in the Science and Engineering Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry, Sponsored by Beckman Coulter, Inc.
Gary L. Myers, PhD, FACB, is chief of the clinical chemistry branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. He also serves as the scientific director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Reference and Research in Blood Lipids at the CDC. His 30-year career at the CDC has focused on improving the laboratory measurement of biochemical markers used to assess chronic disease risk, particularly cardiovascular disease. As the CDC’s representative on the National Cholesterol Education Program’s Laboratory Standardization Panel, he played a pivotal role in developing national guidelines to improve the reliability of cholesterol testing. He organized the Cholesterol Reference Method Laboratory Network, which has been a model for other such efforts. Dr. Myers has served AACC at all levels. He is currently president-elect and recently completed a 3-year term on the board of directors. He chaired the Lipids and Lipoproteins Division, which presented him the Gerald R. Cooper Award for Outstanding Service. He chaired the 2002 Annual Meeting Organizing Committee and the 2006 Beckman Conference. He has also served on many AACC committees.
Dr. Myers chairs the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry’s Committee for a Laboratory Medicine Practice Guideline for Emerging Cardiac Markers and is involved with various other national and international organizations dealing with laboratory measurement and standardization issues. He serves on the National Kidney Disease Education Program’s Laboratory Working Group, the American Diabetes Association’s Insulin Standardization Working Group, the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry’s Working Group on Hemoglobin A1c Standardization, and the National Institutes of Health’s C-peptide Standardization Committee. He also serves on the board of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute and chairs its Global Advisory Committee. He has published more than 80 articles, book chapters, and editorials.
AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education, Sponsored by Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute
Catherine A. Hammett-Stabler, PhD, DABCC, FACB, is director of the clinical toxicology, clinical pharmacology, and pediatric metabolism laboratories and associate director of the core laboratory of the McLendon Clinical Laboratories at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill. As an associate professor in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC), she focuses on service and education. She teaches a variety of UNC students, including undergraduates in the clinical laboratory science program, second-year medical and dental students, graduate students, residents, and fellows. She often presents programs and lectures covering a range of laboratory topics to other healthcare providers, including clinicians, nurses, and clinical laboratory scientists. She is co-director of the University of North Carolina Hospital’s postdoctoral training program in clinical chemistry. An AACC member since 1982, Dr. Hammett-Stabler has served on several committees, including the 2000 and 2003 Annual Meeting Organizing Committees. She chaired the editorial board of Clinical Chemistry News. She is past chair of the TDM and Toxicology Division, where she has held many other positions as well. Dr. Hammett-Stabler serves on the board of directors of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and the National Registry of Certified Chemists. She is a member of several editorial boards, including Clinica Chimica Acta and Therapeutics and Toxins, and is an associate editor of Clinical Biochemistry.
AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research, Sponsored by Olympus America Inc., Diagnostic Systems Group
Hugo Katus, MD, is chief of internal medicine and director of the cardiovascular medicine department of the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He is president-elect of the Academy of Cardiology of the German Society of Cardiology and editor of Clinical Research in Cardiology (formerly Zeitschrift für Kardiologie), the official journal of the German Cardiac Society. After years of work in the field, he was the first to develop, in 1984, a cardiac-specific troponin assay that demonstrated in initial clinical trials the superior performance of this marker in patients with suspected myocardial infarction. In cooperation with Boehringer Mannheim (now Roche Diagnostics), he improved the analytical performance of the troponin T assay to make it useful for large-scale clinical chemistry testing. He holds, with Roche Diagnostics, an international patent on the troponin T assay. In cooperation with clinical partners, he has shown the superior performance of the troponin T assay in large randomized multicenter trials. These results documented for the first time the clinical significance of minor myocardial injury, which had remained undetected by creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme analyses. This work has markedly affected the diagnostic approaches in suspected myocardial injury and has led to a new definition of myocardial infarction, which is now based on a troponin standard. Troponin measurements have also been shown to be useful for diagnosis and risk stratification in various other disorders, such as myocarditis, heart failure, end-stage renal disease, and pulmonary embolism. In recent years, Dr. Katus’ scientific interests have shifted to the genetic basis of cardiomyopathies and heart failure. He now serves as coordinator of the cardiovascular genomic research initiative of the German Ministry of Science.
AACC Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements by a Young Investigator, Sponsored by Roche Diagnostics
Roshini S. Abraham, PhD, is an assistant professor of medicine and laboratory medicine and pathology at the Mayo College of Medicine and co-director of the clinical immunology laboratory (where she is director of the cellular and molecular immunology section) at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. During her postdoctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, as the principal investigator on 2 grants she investigated the immunogenetic mechanisms that contribute to the pathophysiology of systemic lupus erythematosus and type 1 diabetes in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) transgenic animal models. She then joined the faculty, with a research focus on B-cell clonal evolution and differentiation in the pathogenesis of immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis, a bone marrow plasma cell dyscrasia. She was also actively involved in the clinical immunology laboratory in the dysproteinemia area. Her current clinical laboratory and research interests are in the area of laboratory diagnosis of primary immunodeficiencies and the assessment of immune competence, function, and reconstitution in a variety of clinical settings, including solid organ transplantation, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy, and cancer vaccines. She is also involved in teaching clinical immunology to graduate students, pathology residents, clinical chemistry fellows, and allied laboratory health staff. Together with many collaborators and trainees, she has authored 25 peer-reviewed papers and 21 abstracts. She is a manuscript reviewer for Clinical Immunology and the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She received the 2003 George Grannis Young Investigator Award from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB).
AACC International Travel Fellowship, Sponsored by BD Diagnostics—Preanalytical Systems
Sarfraz Ahmad, PhD, is chief research scientist and research manager at the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute in Orlando. Before joining that institution in 2002, he spent 10 years in research and teaching at Loyola University of Chicago and with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s department of medicine. Dr. Ahmad’s research and teaching interests include cellular and molecular hemostasis, thrombosis, and cancer biology, particularly related to the pathogenic mechanisms in immune disorders such as heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. His investigations are also aimed toward the development of novel anticoagulant, antithrombin, antiplatelet, and thrombolytic drugs for the management of cardiovascular/hematology patients. His past research interests focused on protein/enzyme purification and characterization, lectin–glycoprotein interactions, pathophysiology and signaling mechanisms in sepsis/shock syndrome, interferon/cytokine-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation in hematopoietic cells, immune response in T-cell signaling, and skeletal muscle metabolism research. In these various areas of research, Dr. Ahmad has published 80 articles and book chapters and more than 200 abstracts. He is a reviewer for several biomedical journals and has received numerous awards for his research contributions.
Dr. Ahmad is an active member of several national and international scientific societies and has been an executive committee member of the Association of Scientists of Indian Origin in America (ASIOA) for more than a decade. He has traveled world-wide as a speaker at various national and international platforms. In addition to his ties to US institutions, he has maintained international research collaborations with Danish, German, Indian, Italian, and Turkish biomedical institutions. He plans to use this International Travel Fellowship Award during his educational and research activities to promote clinical chemistry in Istanbul, Turkey, and Oslo, Norway.
The AACC Lectureship Award, Sponsored by an Educational Grant from Bayer HealthCare Diagnostics Division
Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, is president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. He served as provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, following 13 years as dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision making. Dr. Fineberg helped found and then served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and also served as adviser and consultant to the CDC and the World Health Organization. At the Institute of Medicine, he has chaired and served on several panels dealing with health policy issues ranging from AIDS to vaccine safety. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of numerous books and articles on such diverse topics as AIDS prevention, tuberculosis control, assessment of new medical technology, clinical and public health decision making, and understanding risk in society.
The Sigi Ziering Award for Outstanding Contribution for a Publication in the Journal Clinical Chemistry, Sponsored by Diagnostic Products Corporation (DPC)
David J. Warren, PhD, is a senior scientist in the central laboratory at the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo. During his postdoctoral research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, he worked with a group that demonstrated that a neutrophil differentiation factor [granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)] therapy ameliorated the neutropenia associated with cytotoxic chemotherapy and accelerated neutrophil recovery after bone marrow transplantation. This growth factor is now in extensive clinical use. Dr. Warren’s research also helped to elucidate the role played by G-CSF in the pathology and therapy of a variety of inherited neutropenic states, including cyclic hematopoiesis and congenital agranulocytopenias. As a visiting scientist at the University of Bergen in Norway, Dr. Warren developed several new assays, including a unique method for determining the extent of cytotoxic nucleotide accumulation in the leukocyte DNA of acute lymphocytic leukemia patients receiving 6-mercaptopurine maintenance therapy. Subsequent projects on drug metabolism led him to establish methodologies for the efficient expression of recombinant proteins. His current research interests include the development of single-chain antibodies as reagents in immunometric assays for tumor marker antigens and the characterization of the extracellular domain of the ovarian marker CA125. His winning article, "Use of an In Vivo Biotinylated Single-Chain Antibody as Capture Reagent in an Immunometric Assay to Decrease the Incidence of Interference from Heterophilic Antibodies" (Clin Chem 2005;51:830–8), describes an elegant new approach to eliminate common inferences in immunometric methods, which, if successfully implemented, could produce more accurate results in these widely used tests. The paper’s co-authors were Johan Bjerner, Elisabeth Paus, Ole P. Børmer, and Kjell Nusad.
The Morton K. Schwartz Award for Significant Contributions in Cancer Research Diagnostics, Sponsored by Bayer HealthCare Diagnostics Division
Herbert A. Fritsche, PhD, FACB, has served as chief of clinical chemistry at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for the past 37 years. He has served in all elected positions in AACC’s Texas Section and chaired the National Education Committee and the Education Committee of the Immunology Division. He has served as president of the Clinical Ligand Assay Society and is a member of the editorial board for 6 journals. He has lectured at many international meetings and has published more than 150 papers and 30 book chapters in the field of cancer diagnostics. He is a member of the scientific advisory boards of 6 companies; holds 4 patents and 2 patent applications; is co-author of a recent textbook, Tumor Markers, and is the meeting director of a biennial conference on cancer diagnostics sponsored by M.D. Anderson. He has been active in the field of cancer diagnostics since 1969. He was one of the early proponents of the direct serum assay for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) for breast cancer monitoring. He was one of the first to develop immunonephelometric assays for serum immunoglobulins and to apply the ß2-microglobulin assay for multiple myeloma, to implement the serum lactate dehydrogenase-1 assay as a complement to 
-fetoprotein and human chorionic gonadotropin for monitoring patients with germ cell tumors, and to use serum prostate-specific antigen for the early detection and clinical management of prostate cancer. Recently, he helped to develop an assay for circulating tumor cells and established its utility as a prognostic marker for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Dr. Fritsche participated in the clinical trials leading to Food and Drug Administration clearance of all of the serum tumor marker tests currently in use. His current work focuses on the role of circulating DNA as a tumor marker.
The Edwin F. Ullman Award, Sponsored by Dade Behring, Inc.
Larry J. Kricka, PhD, is professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the general chemistry laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He has served AACC in countless capacities, foremost as president in 2001. This award recognizes an individual for contributions that advance the technology of clinical laboratory sciences, and two of Dr. Kricka’s efforts, in particular, have had a profound effect on the field. The first involves chemiluminescence and bioluminescence: He was instrumental in the development of 2 of the 3 major chemiluminescent technologies currently used in routine testing, including an enhanced luminescence system for peroxidase labels and the 1,2-dioxetane substrate, now widely used to detect alkaline phosphatase labels and other hydrolytic enzymes. He has also played an important role in adapting chemiluminescent and bioluminescent assays to point-of-care testing. His second defining work, in collaboration with Dr. Peter Wilding, is with analytical microchips. Dr. Kricka played a critical role in the development of micro-fabricated clinical analysis devices and devices that isolate cells, analyze DNA, test for fertility, assist in vitro fertilization, test for drugs and hormones, and integrate tests for malignancy. These miniaturization techniques produced the first demonstration of numerous analytically useful processes in microchips, including immunoassay, assessment of sperm motility, and DNA amplification. Today, many laboratories and companies have research and development programs based on Dr. Kricka’s discoveries. Dr. Kricka holds 30 US patents and is the author or co-author of more than 350 articles, abstracts, book chapters, and papers and of 20 books. He is editor-in-chief of Luminescence; a member of the editorial boards of Clinical Chemistry, Lab-on-a-Chip, and Analytical Biochemistry; and past editor of the Journal of Immunoassay.
AACC Award for Outstanding Clinical Laboratory Contributions to Patient Safety, Sponsored by Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics
Michael L. Astion, MD, PhD, is a clinical pathologist who is an associate professor and director of reference laboratory services at the University of Washington, Department of Laboratory Medicine, in Seattle. His career is equally divided between teaching, clinical service, and research and development. He has authored more than 20 software titles and more than 30 papers. His software includes both laboratory tutorials and competency assessment exams, and these materials are now used by more than 15 000 clinical laboratory workers each year. He is the editor-in-chief of Laboratory Errors and Patient Safety, a newsletter dedicated to improving laboratory quality. Dr. Astion is a frequent speaker at professional meetings, where he lectures on issues related to laboratory test interpretation, autoantibody testing, medical errors, medical informatics, and competency assessment. His previous awards include the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science’s Theriot Award for Excellence in Media, which he received twice for his educational software. A frequent winner of the AACC Outstanding Speaker award, Dr. Astion has been active in AACC, including as a symposium organizer on the 2005 Annual Meeting Organizing Committee. He currently heads the AACC patient safety task force.
AACC’s Past-President’s Award, Sponsored by Cardinal Health, Scientific Products Distribution
Mitchell G. Scott, PhD, DABCC, FACB, is co-medical director of clinical chemistry and decentralized testing at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and professor in the division of laboratory medicine, in the department of pathology and immunology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is co-director of the clinical chemistry postdoctoral training program at Washington University, where he has helped train more than 50 fellows and 100 residents. He has served AACC in many capacities, including on the Program Coordinating Commission, Meetings Management Group, and executive committee of the Clinical Chemistry Board of Editors, as well as chair of the Membership Committee and the Division Management Group. Under his leadership, 2005 was an exciting and busy year for AACC, as he pursued twin major goals of increasing the number of young scientists entering the field and increasing clinician awareness of AACC and laboratory medicine. The Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians speaker series began recruiting graduate students into the field of laboratory medicine, and this effort is paying off with new trainees and an increased number of postdoctoral training programs. An initiative to increase interactions with clinical societies led to presentations by AACC members at meetings of societies such as the American Diabetes Association and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. The National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry and AACC completed negotiations that led to the successful merger of NACB into AACC, which will truly make the NACB the "Academy of AACC" and a place to honor members with distinguished academic careers. Progress on numerous other association efforts continued as well, including publication of all of the back issues of Clinical Chemistry from 1954 through 1996 on the website and initiation of a proteomics conference by the new Proteomics Division.
Applications Available for Charles E. Culpeper Scholarships in Medical Science
Partnership for Cures is currently accepting applications for the 2007 Charles E. Culpeper Scholarships in Medical Science, which are designed to support the career development of academic physicians. Each medical school may nominate one candidate. Up to three awards of $108 000 per year for 3 years will be made.
Requirements.
Awards will be made to US medical schools or equivalent US educational institutions on behalf of men and women who are either US citizens or aliens who have been granted permanent US residence (proof required). Nominees must have received their MD degree from a US medical school or the equivalent of an MD degree from an educational institution equivalent to a US medical school in 1998–2005. No institution may nominate more than one candidate. All scientific research relevant to human health is eligible for consideration; research that has relevance to cures for human disease is highly encouraged.
Application deadline is Wednesday, August 16, 2006. Application forms and further information can be obtained on the web at http://www.goldmanpartnerships.orgor by contacting Beth Black, Partnership for Cures, 70 West Madison Street, Suite 1500, Chicago, IL 60602; phone 312-601-8849; e-mail beth{at}4cures.org.
Obituaries
Nicholas Cozzarelli (1938–2006), Editor-in-Chief of PNAS
Nicholas R. Cozzarelli, editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, died Sunday, March 19, at the age of 67, at his home in Berkeley, California, from complications related to treatment for Burkitt’s lymphoma.
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 for his contributions to the understanding of how proteins alter the topology of DNA, Dr. Cozzarelli elucidated the nature of DNA architecture and growth through enzymologic studies of polymerases, ligases, recombinases, and topoisomerases. His recent work focused on the partitioning of chromosomes and unlinking of DNA during replication, using prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems to study DNA-protein interactions and physiological roles.
Dr. Cozzarelli was dedicated to the highest standards in science and in scientific publishing. The community of scientists and the community of editors and publishers are diminished by the loss of this leader. Our thoughts are with his family.
