Shaw awards support research of health, genetics

Three young Wisconsin scientists have been selected for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Shaw Scientist Award.

The awards support research looking at genes and the effects of fetal alcohol exposure; the structural biology of RNA; and parasites like the cryptosporidium that affected Milwaukee’s water supply several years ago.

Two UW–Madison assistant professors — Samuel Butcher, biochemistry, and Laura Knoll, medical microbiology and immunology — received the grants, as did Michael Carvan, assistant professor in the department of health sciences and assistant scientist in the UW-Milwaukee Great Lakes WATER Institute. They were among eight finalists nominated by the two universities.

The Shaw Award is highly sought-after by young scientists because its unrestricted $200,000 grant can be used for highly speculative research.

“The scientific community tells us that the greatest applied science comes from people asking interesting questions and keeping their eyes open,” says Douglas M. Jansson, executive director of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. “The Shaw award encourages the most promising young minds at these two premier Wisconsin institutions to do just that.”

Butcher is working at the atomic level to study the splicing of ribonucleic acid (RNA), the process that allows the human body to manipulate approximately 40,000 genes to produce the 100,000 plus proteins it needs to function properly. Splicing defects are associated with a variety of conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Butcher’s research hopes to detail the structural biology of RNA, opening the door to new fields of science made possible by completion of the mapping of the human genome.

Knoll is looking for the genes that allow toxoplasma, which causes infections in developing fetuses and encephalitis in immunocompromised patients, to enter a cyst stage that allows them to live in a human host hidden from the immune system and anti-microbial agents. Such a discovery would open the door to developing new antibiotics that would benefit patients with AIDS and cancer. Toxoplasma is related to Plasmodium, which causes malaria, and Cryptosporidium, which causes water-borne outbreaks of diarrhea.

Carvan is exploring the effects of alcohol exposure on the development of zebra fish. The zebra fish is a model organism used to study vertebrate development genetics. Carvan’s research is looking for the genes that influence human susceptibility and resistance to fetal alcohol syndrome or alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation created the Shaw Scientist Award in 1982 to carry out the terms of a bequest from Dorothy Shaw, widow of James D. Shaw, a prominent Milwaukee attorney. Shaw used her will to endow a $4.2 million fund within the Foundation and directed that it be used to advance research in the fields of biochemistry, biological science and cancer research at UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee.

Shaw Award recipients are selected by a panel of five scientists from major research institutions throughout the United States. The committee is chaired by Owen W. Griffith, professor and chairman of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Department of Biochemistry. Since it was established 20 years ago, the Shaw Award has provided over $8 million in awards to 43 scientists at UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation contains nearly 750 component funds established by donors to address specific local causes. With total assets of $313 million, it provided nearly $20.8 million in grants last year to a wide array of charitable efforts.