Award of Excellence – Young Investigator Award – 2002
Congratulations to : Dr Ken-ichi Watanabe who has been selected as the recipient of the initial Young Investigator Award, which was established this year. Dr Watanabe was the first author of an article entitled ‘Identification of a Distal Enhancer for the Melanocyte-Specific Promoter of the MITF Gene’ which was also selected as the best Original Research Article published in Pigment Cell Research in Volume 15 (the year 2002). Their article was published in issue no. 3, pp. 201–211.
Their paper detailed the importance of a distal element (termed the MDE) which is located 14.5 kb upstream from exon 1M and which enhances the promoter activity of the MITF gene. The critical importance of this MDE regulatory element is that it contains the binding site for SOX10, another transcription factor that regulates MITF transcription. Both these genes have been associated with an inherited human hypopigmentation disorder known as Waardenburg syndrome, MITF being involved with Waardenburg Syndrome type 2 and SOX10 with Waardenburg–Hirschsprung syndrome. The study reflects on the common pathogenic mechanism of both syndromes, and shows the developmental timing of expression of those genes in melanoblasts, and demonstrates that SOX10 thus regulates transcription of MITF from the MDE site in a developmental stage-specific manner.
Summary of the Selection Procedure : All corresponding authors of Original Research Articles (but not Reviews) were encouraged to nominate the first authors of their manuscripts if they met the criteria of eligibility (as detailed below). All six nominations, and the nominating recommendations, were then reviewed by the PCR Awards Committee (which consists of all current Associate Editors and past/current Editors, a total of 24 members). Each submitted a ballot indicating their top two choices from those nominations and the two papers getting the most votes from that initial ballot were placed on the final ballot and the same Awards Committee gave them further consideration and voted again.
Runners Up : The Editorial Board would also like to congratulate the other five nominees for this award. All were worthy entries and all earned some votes from the Awards Committee. They are listed below, in the sequence of their publication only:
- •
Dr Etienne Gontier –‘Dermal Nevus Cells from Congenital Nevi Cannot Penetrate the Dermis in Skin Reconstructs’ by E. Gontier, M. Cario-Andre, S. Lepreux, P. Vergnes, J. Bizik, J.-E. Surleve-Bazeille and A. Taïeb Pigment Cell Res. 2002;15:41–48.
- •
Dr Daniel Lopéz-Serrano –‘A New SDS-Activated Tyrosinase from Marinomonas mediterranea Cloning and Molecular Characterization’ by D. Lopez-Serrano, A. Sanchez-Amat and F. Solano. Pigment Cell Res. 2002;15:104–111.
- •
Dr Rivka A. Rachel –‘Influence of Tyrosinase Levels on Pigment Accumulation in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium and on the Uncrossed Retinal Projection’ by R.A. Rachel, C.A. Mason and F. Beermann. Pigment Cell Res. 2002;15:273–281.
- •
Dr Jennifer K. Wagner –‘Comparing Quantitative Measures of Erythema, Pigmentation, and Skin Response using Reflectometry’ by J.K. Wagner, C. Jovel, H.L. Norton, E.J. Parra and M.D. Shriver. Pigment Cell Res. 2002;15:379–384.
- •
Dr Yan Lu –‘Melanocytes are Potential Immunocompetent Cells: Evidence from Recognition of Immunological Characteristics of Cultured Human Melanocytes’ by Y. Lu, W.-Y. Zhu, C. Tan, G.-H. Yu and J.-X. Gu. Pigment Cell Res. 2002;15:454–461.
Criteria for eligibility include being: (1) first and/or corresponding author of an Original Research Article, and (2) within 5 years of earning an MD and/or PhD degree. This Award of Excellence entitles the winning Young Investigator to a year's free subscription to the journal, an Award of Achievement (cf. below), a $250 travel stipend to attend the next regional Pigment Cell Meeting, and sponsored registration at that meeting. The Editor would like to thank the Editorial Board for their work in selecting the nominees and the eventual winner, and would also like to thank all those who published in Pigment Cell Research in 2002 and thus were qualified candidates for this award.
