Actelion awards grants to 2011 ENTELLIGENCE young investigators for research in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. and the ENTELLIGENCE Steering Committee recognized four young researchers and their mentors for their efforts in advancing research in PAH. Each researcher will receive a 12-month mentored grant of up to $100,000 in support, funded through the ENTELLIGENCE program supported by Actelion. The announcement was made at an awards luncheon, during which the recipients of the 2011 awards gave an overview of their proposed work.

“Today’s presentations by our awardees before an audience of world-renowned thought leaders in pulmonary hypertension were inspiring and energizing. The scope and breadth of these projects conceived by these young researchers is very extraordinary. The Steering Committee is extremely pleased that these projects will highlight the mission of the ENTELLIGENCE program, to foster the development of careers in academic medicine focused on improving the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension. We are grateful to Actelion for creating and funding this program, which is now in its 6th year, and looking better than ever.” said Ronald J. Oudiz, MD, ENTELLIGENCE Steering Committee Chairman and Professor of Medicine and Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

The 2011 award winners, their mentors, and the supported projects are:

Jana Bagarova, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Project: BMP9-Mediated Regulation of Endothelin-1 Expression in Vascular Endothelial Cells
Mentor: Paul B. Yu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

Marco, Mura, MD, PhD
Clinical Fellow
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
Project: Osteopontin in Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, a Biomarker and Therapeutic Target
Mentor: John T. Granton, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Toronto

Salah Najm, MD
Pulmonary, Sleep, and Critical Care Fellow
University Hospitals, Case Medical Center
Cleveland, Ohio
Project: Vascular Reactivity in Response to Acute Hypoxia: Defining Features and Mechanisms
Mentor: Kingman Strohl, MD
Professor of Medicine, Physiology, Biophysics, and Oncology
Case Western Reserve University

Yon K. Sung, MD
Post Doctoral Fellow/Instructor in Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
Palo Alto, California
Project: The Role of Antibodies in the Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Mentor: Mark R. Nicolls, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine

The ENTELLIGENCE program was established by Actelion in 2005 to support basic science, translational and/or clinical research related to PAH. The program, part of Actelion’s on-going commitment to endothelin research, provides funding to an independent steering committee to advance the understanding of PAH and, ultimately, improve treatment of this progressive and fatal disease through research grants to young investigators.

The ENTELLIGENCE program provides opportunities for individual young investigators to promote quality medical care and enhance patients' lives by supporting research in the area of PAH related to expanding our knowledge of the pathways involved in pulmonary vascular pathobiology.
The 2011 ENTELLIGENCE grant award will begin September 26, 2011.