ROCKVILLE, MD – The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce that Alexandra C. Newton, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego, USA has been named the recipient of the 2020 BPS Award in the Biophysics of Health and Disease. Newton will be honored at the Society’s 64th Annual Meeting at the San Diego Convention Center in California, February 15-19, 2020.
Newton is being recognized for her paradigm shifting discoveries that revealed how disease mutations that inhibit Protein Kinase C (PKC) activity cause cancer while those that activate PKC are drivers of neurodegenerative diseases. The BPS Award in the Biophysics of Health and Disease honors a BPS member who has made a significant contribution to understanding the fundamental cause or pathogenesis of disease, or to enabling the treatment or prevention.
“The ultimate goal of biomedical research, no matter how basic, is to eventually have an impact on human health,” said BPS President Dave Piston, Washington University in St. Louis. “Alexandra is an innovative researcher whose work on PKC disease mutations in causing cancer and neurodegenerative diseases is proving critical to developing new treatments and pathways to prevention. We are excited to call attention to her work in this area.”
The Biophysics of Health and Disease Award, established by the Biophysical Society, honors significant contribution to understanding the fundamental cause or pathogenesis of disease, or to enabling the treatment or prevention.