Two TAMEST Members Elected to National Academy of Medicine
TAMEST is proud to congratulate two TAMEST Members on their election to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in October.
TAMEST Member Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS), UT Southwestern Medical Center and TAMEST Board Member Lora V. Hooper, Ph.D. (NAS, NAM), UT Southwestern Medical Center, now hold dual elections to The National Academy of Medicine and The National Academy of Sciences.
Drs. Chen and Hooper are both former recipients of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award from TAMEST. There are a total of 15 former recipients who have gone on to a national academy election and now three former recipients who hold dual academy elections.
The two were elected as part of 90 regular members and 10 international members during the NAM annual meeting. Election to the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
They both will be recognized at the TAMEST 2023 Annual Conference: Forward Texas – Accelerating Change, in Houston, Texas. The conference will take place May 23–25, 2023 at the InterContinental Houston – Medical Center.
Learn more:
Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D. (NAS, NAM), investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science and professor, department of molecular biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
2007 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award Recipient in Medicine
For discovering the DNA sensing enzyme cGAS and its product cGAMP, thereby solving the question of how DNA triggers immune responses from the interior of a cell. He also discovered MAVS, which mediates immune defense against RNA viruses. These discoveries greatly advance our understanding of nucleic acid immunity and diseases.
Lora V. Hooper, Ph.D. (NAS, NAM), professor and chair, department of immunology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
Current TAMEST Board Member; 2013 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award Recipient in Medicine
For pioneering analyses of how the gut microbiota shape host metabolism and immunity. Notably, she demonstrated how gut anti-microbial peptides contribute to host-bacterial homeostasis, including facets of mucosal barrier function. Her approaches have integrated, in an elegant, innovative and highly informative manner, the experimental tools and concepts of several disciplines to provide key new biological insights.
