Spiegel honored with Avanti Award in Lipids

By Sarah Retchin
VCU Communications and Public Relations

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has named Sarah Spiegel, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, a recipient of the Avanti Award in Lipids.

The award honors outstanding scientists whose research interests are in the field of lipids — fat-soluble, naturally occurring molecules, such as fats, oils, waxes and cholesterol.

Spiegel, who also is 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, said she was surprised to win the award, which consists of a plaque, a cash award and the opportunity to lecture at the 2008 ASBMB Annual Meeting.

“The ASBMB has a formal nominating process for several major awards,” she said. “A colleague of mine, who does similar research as I do and who is very familiar with me and my work, nominated me. … Somehow, to my surprise, they picked me.”

Spiegel has received multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health, which have funded her ongoing research for the past 20 years.

In 2003, she was awarded a National Institutes of Health MERIT award of nearly $2.1 million to continue her research on sphingosine1-phosphate (S1P). The award is given to investigators who have demonstrated superior competence and productivity in biomedical research.

Spiegel, who is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on new lipid mediators that regulate cell growth and cell death, first discovered the role of S1P in cell growth regulation nearly a decade ago. Spiegel and her colleagues are continuing this work to better understand the functions of these enzymes, but S1P is now the most thoroughly characterized mediator in this field.

"Sarah Spiegel is among the world's pioneers in the field of cellular signaling," said Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and vice president for VCU Health Sciences. "Her work has led to an explosion of interest in what makes abnormal cells grow, such as cancer cells, and what leads to cellular death.” 

 “We are so proud of this recognition of her work. The Avanti Award is a well-deserved honor for one of the most outstanding faculty scientists at the university," Retchin said.

Seven other scientists were recognized for their outstanding achievements and contributions to science this year: David Davies of the NIDDK, National Institutes of Health; John Kuriyan, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; Susan Lindquist, an HHMI Investigator, member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Douglas Rees, an HHMI Investigator and professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology; Phillip Zamore, HHMI Investigator and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; Sandra Schmid, an investigator at the Scripps Research Institute; and Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom of Duke University Medical Center.

The awards will be presented at the Experimental Biology 2009 Meeting April 18-22 in New Orleans.