Winner Announced in the First Annual Norman R. Alpert Research Prize

Dr. Chris Berger, CMB Interim Director and Director of Graduate Education for the College of Medicine, announced the winner of the 2014 Norman R. Alpert Award at the annual Graduate Research Day for the CMB Program event held October 2, 2014. Jacqueline Leung, a graduate student in the Cellular, Molecular and Biosciences (CMB) Program at the University of Vermont won for her publication, “Identification of T. gondii Myosin Light Chain-1 as a Direct Target of TachypleginA-2, a Small-Molecule Inhibitor of Parasite Motility and Invasion.”

Norman R. Alpert was Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Vermont from 1966 to 1995. Dr Alpert was an outstanding teacher, internationally renowned investigator of cardiac hypertrophy and founder of BioTek Instruments, Inc. One of Dr. Alpert’s many strengths was the mentoring young scientists. The Norman R. Alpert Research Prize was established to honor his commitment to training emerging talent in the biosciences. The prize is awarded annually for the best peer-reviewed research article by a graduate student in the Cellular, Molecular and Biosciences (CMB) Program at the University of Vermont.

CMB students and their publications are nominated by their thesis advisor or member of their thesis studies committee. Published manuscripts nominated for the prize are then evaluated for originality, technical merit, impact and creative contributions of the student by a committee consisting of the CMB director and five faculty members appointed by the director that represent the entire expanse of research investigation in the CMB Program. The prize consists of a certificate and a cash award sponsored by BioTek Instruments.