University of Alabama team earns HudsonAlpha Innovation Prize

Tuscaloosa-based professors receive inaugural award

Huntsville, Ala. – For their groundbreaking research on diseases of the nervous system, especially in relation to Parkinson’s disease, the husband and wife team of Drs. Guy and Kim Caldwell has been awarded the first HudsonAlpha Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Life Sciences.

The $20,000 prize, in addition to recognizing exceptional talent and research of superior merit, aims to raise awareness of biotechnology’s burgeoning impact on Alabama’s economic vitality.

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology President Jim Hudson made the announcement during the institute’s grand opening and dedication ceremonies held today. “Competition for the prize was intense,” noted Hudson, “and the high quality of submissions reflects an overall high quality of work occurring on the campuses of Alabama’s public research universities.”

“To us, HudsonAlpha embodies what Jim Hudson’s entire career has represented; a rare combination of innovation, entrepreneurship, generosity toward the community and outstanding science,” said Guy Caldwell. “To be the very first honorees of the institute prize in the context of this vision is a great honor and deeply satisfying since we strive to embrace these same values in our own careers.”

Speaking for the evaluation team, Dr. Sam McManus, chairman of the HudsonAlpha Innovation Prize committee, stated that the Caldwell team has successfully applied genomic screening by RNAi in conjunction with biological assays for protein misfolding and neurodegeneration, to uncover the largest reported, functionally defined set of genes that protects dopamine neurons from dying during aging. “These studies directly apply to Parkinson’s disease,” he said. Two products are in development as a result of the Caldwell’s work.