Gov. Timothy Kaine recognizes VCU researcher as one of Virginia’s Outstanding Scientists for 2008

Gov. Timothy Kaine has named Sarah Spiegel, Ph.D., an internationally renowned researcher and professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, as one of the state’s Outstanding Scientists of 2008 for her discovery of a potent lipid mediator, which she demonstrated to have important roles in cancer, inflammation and allergy.

Spiegel’s contributions to this research have opened new avenues for drug development to fight these diseases.

Spiegel was recognized for her pioneering work on a new lipid mediator that regulates vital physiological processes important for health and diseases. She developed the concept that sphingolipid metabolites serve as signaling molecules, and the one that she discovered in the early 1990s, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), is now the most thoroughly characterized and widely accepted mediator in this field. 

Spiegel, who is also the program co-leader of the Cancer Cell Biology Program at the VCU Massey Cancer Center and the Mann T. and Sara D. Lowry Professor of Oncology, has received multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health to continuously fund her research for nearly 20 years. In 2003, she was awarded a National Institutes of Health MERIT award totaling nearly $2.1 million, to continue her research on S1P. The award is given to investigators who have demonstrated superior competence and productivity.

"Dr. Speigel's basic research has been groundbreaking and has changed the scientific paradigm," said Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and Vice President for VCU Health Sciences. "Her discoveries have altered the way scientific investigators look at cell growth and proliferation."

Spiegel’s seminal report, published in a 1993 issue of the journal Nature, linking S1P to growth factor action has been followed by a steady stream of contributions important to the field of lipid mediators. In a 1996 paper, also published in Nature, Spiegel introduced the provocative notion that the dynamic balance between S1P and its precursors functions as a cellular rheostat that determines whether a cell survives or dies. This concept has since been demonstrated by other investigators and has important implications for chemotherapy and radiation therapy of cancer.

Subsequently, Spiegel and her colleagues have published a number of reports examining the important physiological and pathophysiological processes that are regulated by S1P, including cancer, cardiovascular function, atherosclerosis, immunity and asthma, and more continue to emerge from VCU at a remarkable rate.

Spiegel has thoroughly investigated the diverse roles of the simple molecule, S1P. She discovered that S1P functions not only inside cells but also can be secreted and act outside of cells by binding to specific cell surface receptors. According to Spiegel, there is not a cell in the human body that does not express at least one of these receptors, which is why the S1P is considered such a powerful mediator. These findings were reported in the journal Science.

In a 2006 commentary in the journal Cancer Cell, Spiegel proposed that cross-talk between S1P receptors and growth and pro-angiogenic factor receptors can lead to the amplification of signals important for tumorigenicity and angiogenesis. Thus, targeting S1P and the enzymes that regulate its levels would be a novel avenue for cancer therapeutics.

More recently, she has uncovered a new role for S1P in pathogenesis of allergic disorders, such as asthma and anaphylaxis. Additionally, in a 2006 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, her team described how mast cells, which orchestrate and perpetuate allergic responses and asthma, secrete S1P. Spiegel’s research in this area is paving the way for the development of potent and specific drugs that may be useful for alleviation of these disorders.

In 2007, Spiegel was honored with the University Distinguished Scholarship Award at the VCU’s 25th Opening Faculty Address and Convocation for excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. That same year, she was also a recipient of the VCU Women in Science, Dentistry and Medicine (WISDM) Professional Achievement Award for her special contributions, dedication, leadership, mentorship and accomplishments in the School of Medicine. According to colleagues, her arrival as chair in 2002 brought with it new talent and re-energized existing staff and researchers.

Under her leadership, the reputation of VCU’s Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department has soared and research funding has increased dramatically to more than five times larger than when she started. In fewer than five years, Spiegel took a department ranked 103rd in NIH funding and drove it to 32nd.