(Philadelphia,
PA) -- Irwin B. Levitan, PhD., Chairman of the Department
of Neuroscience and the David J. Mahoney Professor of
Neurological Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine, has been named recipient of the
Ranwell Caputto Award for 2001.
The award is named for Ranwell Caputto, MD, a researcher
at the Institute for Biochemical Research in Argentina,
who was instrumental in investigating how galactose
is formed in the mammary gland. He later helped found
the Institute of Biological Chemistry and the Sociedad
Argentin de Neurouquimica (SAN).
Presented annually by the Argentine Society for Neurochemistry,
the award recognizes outstanding achievement in the
area of neurochemistry. The award will be presented
later this month in Buenos Aires, at the biennial meeting
of the International Society for Neurochemisty. Levitan
will also serve as the Society's Plenary Lecturer, discussing
Molecular Mechanisms in the Modulation of Neuronal Excitability.
Levitan's ongoing research combines biochemistry, molecular
biology, and electrophysiology in its quest to discover
the ways in which nerve cell activity is regulated to
control behavior. The study is currently looking at
molecules that are involved in the control of nerve
cell activity, in order to understand how different
molecules act together to produce specific behavioral
outputs.
Levitan is the Secretary of the Neuroscience Section
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
and has recently been elected to their Governing Council.
He has also been elected Secretary/Treasurer of the
Association of Medical School Neuroscience Department
Chairs.
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