Posted on August 11, 2004 at 9:55 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Harald Sontheimer, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and senior scientist at the Civitan International Research Center at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) has received a Goldhirsh Foundation award to study brain cancer. The prestigious Goldhirsh awards are designed for researchers who are developing fundamental insights into the biology of brain tumors and whose work offers potential new therapies for treating these deadly cancers.

“It is a great honor for UAB to receive its first Goldhirsh Foundation award and appropriate for that recipient to be Dr. Sontheimer,” said Michael J. Friedlander, Ph.D., chair of the department of neurobiology. “His basic research on glial cell biology has paved the way for several exciting new and innovative treatments for gliomas, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.”

Only seven Goldhirsh awards were presented in 2004. The Goldhirsh Foundation was established by publisher Bernard A. Goldhirsh in 2000, shortly after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. The Foundation has a broad mandate to fund innovative scientific research for brain cancer, gastric cancer and schizophrenia. Since its inception in 2000, the foundation has funded 22 outstanding investigators from research institutions across the country.

Sontheimer’s research focuses on the role played by glutamate, an amino acid, in the growth and migration of tumor cells in the brain. Excessive glutamate in the brain has been linked to the growth of tumors. Sontheimer’s team has identified a pathway by which excess glutamate is released from tumor cells, killing nearby nerve cells and allowing tumors to expand. Sontheimer will study two chemicals that may block this action and cause tumor cells to die.