UCSD researcher Roger Y. Tsien receives Gairdner Award for medical sciences

February 21, 1995

Media Contact: Warren R. Froelich, (619) 534-8564

UCSD RESEARCHER RECEIVES GAIRDNER AWARD FOR MEDICAL SCIENCES

Roger Y.- Tsien, a professor of-pharmacology and chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, has been named one of three scientists to receive the 1995 Gairdner Foundation International Award which recognize contributions in medical science.

Tsien, also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will accept the $21,000 award on October 20 during ceremonies in Toronto. The winners will give a lecture the same day at the University of Toronto.

Since its establishment in 1957 by the late James A. Gairdner, the Gairdner Foundation has honored 238 scientists. Of that group, 43 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

Tsien is being recognized for his work on the design and synthesis of molecules which can measure minute amounts of chemicals within cells.

"This work has allowed scientists all over the world to determine how cells react to the signals they receive from the environment in which they live," the Foundation announcement said.

Tsien, who joined the faculty in 1989, has been working to gain a better understanding of information processing inside living cells. One area of his research has focused on intracellular calcium ions, important chemical messengers that control an enormous variety of biological processes. Among other things, changes in intracellular calcium ions can affect the release of neurotransmitters and hormones, digestive enzymes, the activation by antigens, muscle contraction and light and dark adaptation of visual photoreceptors.

In his lab, Tsien has designed and synthesized fluorescent dyes sensitive to calcium, sodium, hydrogen, and cyclic AMP. These dyes act as molecular probes, capable of detecting and imaging minute changes inside living cells. One potential goal of the work is to monitor the activity of large numbers of interacting neurons as they process information in the brain.

"Dr. Tsien's creative contributions have applications in many medical fields including endocrinology, neurobiology and immunology," the Foundation announcement said.

Tsien graduated from Harvard University in 1972 and received his Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Cambridge in 1977. Between 1982-1989, Tsien was a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley; subsequently, he joined the faculty at UCSD.

In 1991, Tsien was cited as the 1991 Young Scientist Award winner by the prestigious Passano Foundation. The other two award winners this year are Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences; and Arthur Kornberg, professor of biochemistry, Stanford University.

(February 21, 1995)