HOUSTON, Texas, Feb. 3, 2010 – In her paradigm-shifting work, Kim Orth has discovered new mechanisms by which bacteria can cause disease. The organisms she has studied hijack and deregulate a cell's signaling systems for their own purposes, thus defeating the body's immune system. Her work is providing a broad new understanding of how a pathogen can be successful in attacking the immune system and new knowledge of important cell functions.
For these insights, the associate professor and W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas today was named recipient of the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research. The $100,000 award is presented annually by The Welch Foundation, one of the nation's oldest and largest sources of private funding of basic research in chemistry.
"Kim Orth already has made important contributions to our understanding of how bacteria cause disease and what proteins control signaling in the call," said Ernest H. Cockrell, chairman of The Welch Foundation. "Her creative, innovative and collaborative research tackles critical questions affecting humankind and lays a solid foundation for building new knowledge. We are pleased to salute her contributions as a young researcher and look forward to further advances from her lab in the years ahead."
“I am so incredibly honored to be selected for this award and I want The Welch Foundation to know how much I appreciate its support for basic science," said Dr. Orth. "There is so much more to learn about the most fundamental mechanisms of life. Investing in basic research now pays dividends into the future."
Her research is helping scientists better understand cell signaling, which is critical to the body's normal functioning. Studying the areas targeted by the bacteria and learning how the toxins disrupt the cell's signaling mechanisms will aid scientists in identifying the most critical processes in the cell. Eventually, her work could provide the basis for developing drugs to defeat the action of these modifying enzymes and prevent the bacteria from overwhelming the host's immune system. Scientists also may be able to adapt certain of the bacteria's mechanisms for therapeutic purposes, for example by turning a particular function off to treat proliferative diseases such as cancer.
"Dr. Orth has been called one of the 'great biological chemists of her generation,'" said James L. Kinsey, chairman of the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board. "The description is well deserved. Her research represents a unique convergence of biochemistry and cellular biology with the basic mechanisms of infectious disease. She employs a wide range of tools drawn from biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, biophysics and microbial pathogenesis to identify and understand these important mechanisms."
Growing up in Texas, Dr. Orth began her college career at Texas A&M studying psychology, but she found her passion for science after taking a molecular genetics course and graduated with a degree in biochemistry. She earned her master's at the UCLA School of Medicine and her doctorate at UT Southwestern Medical Center. After postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan, she returned to UT Southwestern Medical Center as an assistant professor in 2001.
Dr. Orth is married to Ronald Taussig, an associate professor in pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and is the proud mother of two children: Benjamin, 14, and Samantha, 11.
The Hackerman Award is named in honor of Norman Hackerman, a noted scientist and long-time chair of The Welch Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board. It is presented annually to young scientists conducting basic research in chemistry in Texas.
For more than a half century, The Welch Foundation has been supporting basic chemical research in Texas through grants to researchers at colleges and universities, support for chemistry departments at smaller colleges and universities, funding of endowed chairs, an annual chemical research conference and a summer program for high school students, among other initiatives. The Foundation also bestows the prestigious Welch Award each year for lifetime achievement in basic research in chemistry to benefit humankind.
