Computers Aiding the Aged

Older adults are generally not as tech-savvy as younger generations, but that doesn’t mean they can’t find their place in the digital age. Sara Czaja, codirector of the Center on Aging and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Miller School of Medicine, was honored with an IBM Faculty Award to research software applications designed for older adults. The award will support student internships and academic collaboration with IBM’s accessibility research laboratory. Czaja also is director of the multisite, NIH-funded Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement.

Understanding Climatic Forces

Amy Clement, associate professor of meteorology and physical oceanography in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has earned two prestigious awards: the Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award from the American Meteorological Society and the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union. Both awards recognize her research on climate. Using computer modeling, Clement has shown that changes in El Niño are a fundamental aspect of past and future climate changes. Her findings put the emphasis on the role of the tropics, rather than the high latitudes, in driving climate change.

Molecular Mechanisms in Breast Cancer

From a pool of 300 candidates, Joyce M. Slingerland, M.D., Ph.D., was one of five to receive a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award. The five-year, $300,000-a-year award will support Slingerland’s research on how estrogen affects the action of a key cell cycle inhibitor, p27, to regulate breast cancer cell proliferation. Director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Slingerland also is one of 115 recipients of a $200,000 Breast Cancer Research Foundation Grant. Both awards will fund research to determine if a new molecular targeting drug called an Src inhibitor can restore responsiveness to treatment with anti-estrogens in hormone-resistant breast cancer.