Dr. Verónica Eisner of Chile named a 2009 Pew Latin American Fellow
in the biomedical sciences
Philadelphia, Pennsylvnia. The Pew Charitable Trusts announced today that Dr. Verónica Eisner was selected as a 2009 Pew Latin American Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences. Awards this year were given to 10 postdoctoral level scientists who display outstanding promise in research relevant to the advancement of human health. As a Pew Latin American Fellow, Dr. Eisner will receive $60,000 in salary support to work with Dr. György Hajnóczky at Thomas Jefferson University. Upon returning to Latin America, she will receive an additional $35,000 to purchase essential equipment to continue her research in Chile.
“Pew’s Latin American Fellows Program gives promising young scientists the opportunity to further their knowledge, and encourages scientific collaboration between researchers in the United States and Latin America,” says Shelley A. Hearne, managing director of the Pew Health Group. “We are honored to invest in these great minds, and to provide financial and professional support for their work to advance human health.”
Verónica Eisner, Ph.D., received her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Chile. She proceeded to do a postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for Molecular Studies of the Cell at the University of Chile. Now, she will gain training with Dr. György Hajnóczky, in the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology of Thomas Jefferson University.
Dr. Eisner plans to investigate mitochondria, the membrane-enclosed organelles in our cells that generate energy for the cell and are involved in cell signaling, differentiation, cell death and cell growth. She will focus on muscles, where mitochondrial dynamics are hypothetically regulated by the influx of calcium to muscle. In a cardiac and skeletal muscle culture system she will perform microscopy, calcium measurements and molecular and biological techniques to determine whether improper calcium regulation contributes to altered mitochondrial processes that could lead to tissue injury and muscular disease.
The Latin American Fellows Program is one of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ two long-standing commitments in this field, which also includes the Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. The Fellows program was launched in 1991 to help develop a community of highly-trained scientists to stimulate and contribute to the growth of important biomedical research and foster collaboration among scientists in Latin America and the U.S.
Since 1991, Pew has invested over $14 million to fund more than 175 fellows, close to 80 percent of who have returned to their home countries. Applicants from all Central and South American countries are invited to apply to the program, and selection is made by a distinguished national advisory committee, chaired by Dr. Torsten N. Wiesel, president emeritus of Rockefeller University and a 1981 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine.
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