Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 15, 2008|Volume 36, Number 18

Geneticist cited for research on hypertension

Dr. Richard Lifton, a Yale School of Medicine geneticist and internationally known expert on hypertension, has received the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences for discovering genes that cause many forms of high and low blood pressure.

The prize recognizes contributions that have opened new fields of research or have advanced novel concepts or their applications in a particular biomedical discipline. It includes a $35,000 grant.

Lifton, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Sterling Professor and chair of genetics, identified 10 genes that cause very high blood pressure and 10 genes that cause very low blood pressure. He also found that these genes are involved in the regulation of salt balance by the kidney. (See related story.)

“Dr. Lifton’s findings highlight the importance of dietary salt in the causation of hypertension, a major risk factor in cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death worldwide,” said Dr. Günter Blobel, chair of the awards jury.

Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of Yale School of Medicine, said: “Lifton’s research has demonstrated unequivocally the importance of renal salt handling in the regulation of blood pressure. While hypertension can be due to over constriction of blood vessels or abnormal salt handling by the kidney, Lifton has found in multiple genetic causes of high and low blood pressure that the etiology resides in the kidney. These findings have settled a controversy that persisted for much of the 20th century.”

Lifton joins a distinguished roster of past Wiley Award recipients, among them Nobel Prize-winning scientists Andrew Fire, Craig Mello and Robert Horvitz. Last year Dr. Arthur Horwich, also of Yale School of Medicine, and F. Ulrich Hartl, director at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, were jointly awarded the Wiley Prize for detailing the molecular machinery that guides proteins into their proper functional shape, work that is important in research on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences recognizes contributions that have opened new fields of research or have advanced novel concepts or their applications in a particular biomedical discipline. It honors a specific contribution or a series of contributions that demonstrate significant leadership and innovation.

The Wiley Foundation and the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences were established in 2001 by global publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. Founded in 1807, Wiley publishes a wide range of products, services and resources, in print and online, including nonfiction books, journals, encyclopedias, textbooks, and integrated learning systems for professionals, consumers, scientists, scholars teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, and lifelong learners.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Geneticist cited for research on hypertension

Researcher focuses on heredity in quest to understand . . .

Exhibit traces linkages on the ‘Tree of Life’

‘Rolling’ offers honest, sometimes shocking, look at life in a wheelchair

Study: Older women more likely to suffer depression than older men

Researchers seeking new test for detecting kidney injury . . .

Yale Rheumatic Diseases Research Center awarded $3.2 million . . .

One Law Clinic, Two Cities

Conference will look at issues surrounding nuclear disarmament

Former Yale architecture dean to give Chubb Lecture

Study gives high marks to use of bypass surgery for those in their 90s

Yale Ob-Gyn researchers discussed current work . . .

Several Yale Ob-Gyn presentations are awarded honors at meeting

Judith Resnik wins prestigious honor for her ‘outstanding scholarship’ . . .

Lectures explore mythmaking in Hollywood westerns

Panel will explore ways to promote diverse faculties

‘Images 2008’ exhibition includes works by three Yale staff members

Memorial service for Dr. Barry Goldberg

Yale affiliates to be honored guests at benefit event for LEAP

Campus Notes