Scientist of the Year
UVA School of Medicine's Kodi Ravichandran, PhD, Named Virginia Outstanding Scientist of the Year
Kodi Ravichandran, PhD, Named Virginia Outstanding Scientist of the Year
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., January 27, 2011 — Governor Bob McDonnell and Science Museum of Virginia Director/CEO Richard Conti have announced that Kodi S. Ravichandran, PhD, the Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Microbiology at the University of Virginia, is one of four Virginia Outstanding Scientists of 2011. Ravichandran and fellow honorees will receive their awards at the Science Museum of Virginia’s General Assembly Reception on Thursday, January 27 at 6:00 pm.
“I am honored to recognize Virginia’s top science talents for 2011,”
says Governor McDonnell. “Their creativity, contributions and
dedication will make a better Virginia and a better America for all of
us.”
Chairman of the UVA School of Medicine’s
Department of Microbiology and director of the
UVA Center for Cell Clearance, Ravichandran is internationally
recognized for his ground-breaking research into the mechanisms of cell
clearance. When functioning properly, our bodies safely remove an
estimated one million dying cells per second. Failure to promptly
remove dying cells, however, is linked to chronic inflammation,
developmental defects, and such autoimmune diseases as lupus, arthritis
and atherosclerosis.
Ravichandran’s laboratory investigates all aspects of cell clearance,
from how a dying cell ‘advertises’ its presence to phagocytes (healthy
cells that eat the dying ones), how phagocytes specifically recognize
dead cells, and how a phagocyte digests the ingested cargo. In the past
year, Ravichandran’s laboratory has identified a new type of “find me”
signal released by dying cells, identified the cell membrane gate
through which the find-me signals are released, defined the importance
for an engulfment protein called ELMO1 in cell clearance, and
identified several new players within the phagocyte important for
digesting the dying cells.
Ravichandran joins an elite group of previous award winners, including Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, current director of the National Institutes of Health. Ravichandran is the eleventh UVA faculty member to receive the award since 1985.
