Jackson Laboratory Scientist Named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

Date: March 21, 2005

Bar Harbor, Maine - Susan L. Ackerman, Ph.D., a staff scientist at The Jackson Laboratory, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, one of the top distinctions in American biomedical research.

Dr. Ackerman is one of 43 scientists selected, through a nationwide competition, from more than 300 exceptional nominees working at American universities, medical schools and institutes. The HHMI investigator program is designed to spur scientific discovery by funding the nation's most talented and innovative scientists.

"I want to congratulate Sue on behalf of the entire Jackson Laboratory," says Laboratory Director Rick Woychik. "It's an honor working with such a dynamic and creative researcher, and she fully deserves this recognition."

Once she is formally appointed later this year, Dr. Ackerman, who studies the genes, pathways and networks involved in age-related death of neurons in the central nervous system, will be one of two HHMI investigators at the Laboratory (the only two in Maine). She joins Dr. Simon W.M. John, who has recently published the dramatic results of his laboratory's experimental treatment of glaucoma-susceptible mice.

Dr. Ackerman is also a cooperating professor at the University of Maine. She received B.A.s in chemistry and biology from California State University, Chico, and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She and her husband Douglas McMinimy, allele typing and sequencing supervisor at The Jackson Laboratory, live in Bar Harbor with their daughters Caroline and Rachael.

The Jackson Laboratory, founded 75 years ago, is the world's largest mammalian genetics research institution. Its research staff of more than 450 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes, and many other human diseases and disorders. The Laboratory is also the world's source for nearly 3,000 strains of genetically defined mice, home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.

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Additional information:

Press release on the newly appointed Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators: http://www.hhmi.org/news/032105.html
Biographies of Dr. Ackerman and other investigators, including photographs in jpeg format: http://www.hhmi.org/news/032105_list.html
Dr. Ackerman's research page: http://www.jax.org/staff/susan_ackerman.html

Contact(s):

Jade Harmer, 207-288-6051, jade@jax.org

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Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6051
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org