AHFMR News
Can maternal care alter our genetics?
AHFMR announces Dr. Michael Meaney as the winner of the inaugural AHFMR Lougheed Prize
(Calgary, AB) Wednesday, January 23, 2008... We all know that a mother's touch can comfort a child. But what if maternal touching could do much more-such as shaping that child's ability to cope with stress? Research by Dr. Michael Meaney has suggested that the level of grooming and care rat mothers give their offspring alters the chemistry of the DNA in certain genes involved in the stress response.
Dr. Meaney is the inaugural recipient of the AHFMR Lougheed Prize in fetal and early childhood development, which awards $100,000 to an outstanding biomedical or clinical researcher. AHFMR will also provide support for an Alberta Post-doctoral Fellow to work in Dr. Meaney's lab for up to three years.
The award honours former Premier Peter Lougheed for his key contributions to AHFMR-Mr. Lougheed's government created the Foundation in 1980 with a $300 million endowment. The Lougheed Prize was created in 2005 as part of celebrations to recognize AHFMR's 25th anniversary.
"I am very honoured both to have this prize named after me and by the stature of the researcher selected as its first recipient," says Mr. Lougheed. "AHFMR has changed the landscape of health research in this province. It is a legacy for all Albertans that will benefit people far beyond our province's borders and I am very proud of my government's role in its establishment."
Dr. Meaney is a leading figure in the field of child health research. He is associate director of the Douglas Institute Research Centre in Montreal and a professor in the departments of Psychiatry, and Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. While in Alberta to receive the Lougheed Prize, Dr. Meaney will deliver public lectures on his work and will meet with researchers in the child health research area.
"AHFMR supports only excellence," says Gail Surkan, chair of the Foundation's board of trustees. "That excellence is international in nature-we nurture it in Alberta in our top researchers, we help recruit the best and the brightest to Alberta, and with the AHFMR Lougheed Prize, we bring people of Dr. Meaney's standing here to share knowledge. The Lougheed Prize reflects the spirit of the man it is named after-a leader, a visionary, and someone who has always set the standard when it comes to excellence."
Please call Kathleen Thurber, AHFMR Communications, at (780) 423-5727 for further information.
What is the AHFMR Lougheed Prize?
The AHFMR Lougheed Prize is awarded, following due diligence by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), to the most deserving candidate making outstanding contributions to research in basic biomedical and/or clinical science benefitting human health in Alberta and the world that is consistent with the objectives of AHFMR. It is a $100,000 (Canadian dollars) individual prize of which at least 75 percent is to be used for the direct support of research; the remaining 25 percent is for discretionary use. An AHFMR-funded post-doctoral Fellowship placement will be available for an Alberta-based trainee to be associated with the AHFMR Lougheed Prize . The stipend and research allowance for the Post-doctoral Fellowship will be paid by AHFMR for a period of up to three years and are not part of the $100,000 research prize component of the award.
Why was the AHFMR Lougheed Prize created?
The AHFMR Lougheed Prize was created by the Trustees of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research in 2005 to honour former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed who was the driving force behind the Foundation's establishment in 1979. The AHFMR Lougheed Prize will alternate with the Klein Prize every other year. (The Klein Prize, created to honour former Premier Ralph Klein's government's contribution to AHFMR, is of the same stature and will be awarded to an international research leader in the area of population or applied health research. It is expected the first AHFMR Klein Prize will be announced in early 2009.)
Who is eligible for the AHFMR Lougheed Prize?
The AHFMR Lougheed Prize will be awarded to a leading, mid-career scientist of international stature in biomedical or clinical research. The candidate's first independent research appointment should have begun not more than 15 years prior to his or her nomination for the award. The eligible candidate can be based anywhere in the world and will, ideally, be on track to future prizes such as the Gairdner, Lasker, or Nobel Prizes.
Is the AHFMR Lougheed Prize awarded in a specific field of research?
The specific areas of research in which the AHFMR Lougheed Prize will be awarded are to be determined by AHFMR with the advice of their Scientific Advisory Council (SAC), and announced each year. For the inaugural AHFMR Lougheed Prize, the Scientific Advisory Council determined the field to be: Fetal and Early Childhood Determinants for Optimal Health, which was the theme for the Foundation's first Inukshuk conference held in 2005.
What is the process for selecting the AHFMR Lougheed Prize recipient?
The AHFMR Lougheed Prize recipient is selected by review, as are all AHFMR awards. The AHFMR Board of Trustees makes the final decision on the recipient. The process however, differs from that used by the Foundation to determine individual investigator awards. This is because the AHFMR Lougheed Prize is a singular prize in an area of research determined by AHFMR's Scientific Advisory Council, and is awarded on the basis of proven international stature.
Nominations of potential AHFMR Lougheed Award candidates are sought from members of the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Council, as well as from key leaders and senior researchers in the defined research field of the Prize from Alberta, other parts of Canada, and around the world. As well, names of potential candidates are elicited from comprehensive publications reviews and internet based research of major awards granted by other research funding foundations in Canada and around the world.
Each nomination is researched by AHFMR staff in order to evaluate the potential candidates using the four criteria of the AHFMR Lougheed Prize:
- Publication record: Quality and recognition of the publications;
- Mentorship record: Candidate's active role in mentoring plus the quality of the mentees;
- Awards or recognitions received;
- Public engagement: Proven activity in communicating to the wider public and demonstrated spirit of service to the community at large
A short list of names is compiled and a full package of information about each person on the list is submitted to an ad hoc advisory council composed of leading authorities in the defined field of the AHFMR Lougheed Prize. In 2007 this was: Dr. Stephen Lye, Senior Investigator and Associate Director, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and member of SAC; Dr. Judith Hall, a clinical geneticist and paediatrician, and member of the board of directors of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research; and Dr. Terry Klassen, Head of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta.
The Committee's choice was submitted to AHFMR's Board of Trustees for their review and decision. AHFMR's Board of Trustees approved the choice of Dr. Michael Meaney at their June 2007 meeting.
How will the Post-doctoral Fellowship associated with the AHFMR Lougheed Prize be awarded?
AHFMR already has a process for reviewing Post-doctoral Fellowship applications and this will be used to determine the Fellow who will work with the AHFMR Lougheed Prize recipient. The only added component is that AHFMR will work in collaboration with the recipient of the Lougheed Prize to select appropriate candidates for this position and will fast-track applications for this specific position which funds up to three years of research with the AHFMR Lougheed Prize recipient's team. Eligible candidates need to familiarize themselves with the Foundation's guidelines for Post-doctoral Fellowships found on the AHFMR website at: http://www.ahfmr.ab.ca/grants/fasttrack.php and contact either the recipient of the Prize directly or Dr. Pam Valentine, Associate Director, Grants and Awards at AHFMR for further information about this opportunity. AHFMR will set a deadline of December 31, 2008 for the allocation of this position with the 2007 Lougheed Prize recipient.
NOTE: AHFMR has also made arrangements with each of the three research universities so that interested candidates for the Post-doctoral Fellowship can meet with Dr. Meaney while he is in Alberta.