Dr. Anamaria Camargo Awarded the 2007 TWAS ROLAC Young Scientist Prize for Medical Sciences
Dr. Anamaria Camargo
Dr. Anamaria Camargo, Group Leader at the LICR São Paulo Branch, was recently named as one of four investigators to receive the 2007 TWAS ROLAC Young Scientist Prize. The award was presented at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences annual welcoming ceremony on May 30, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro. Dr. Camargo was honored with this prize for her accomplishments as a young scientist in the Latin America and Caribbean regions.
Dr. Camargo’s research has already impacted the field of genomics, through her role in the joint LICR/FAPESP Xylella fastidiosa genome project and the LICR Human Cancer Genome Project (HCGP), which originated at the São Paulo Branch. During the Xylella genome project, Dr. Camargo assisted in the development of an innovative technology known as PACE, for closing sequencing gaps in bacterial genomes, which is currently used in sequencing projects throughout the world. Additionally, she helped to create the innovative sequencing strategy named ORESTES (Open Reading frame ESTs) which was used to generate many novel ESTs in the HCGP database. The novel sequences generated from this technology were instrumental to the success of the larger international human genome sequencing initiative. Dr. Camargo has also coordinated a large collaborative project, known as the Transcript Finishing Initiative (TFI), which involved 35 research laboratories from the State of São Paulo and allowed the characterization of new human transcripts and splicing isoforms expressed at a lower abundance level and in a restricted set of tissues.
Dr. Camargo has been at LICR’s São Paulo Branch since 1998 and was promoted to lead the Molecular Biology and Genomics Group in 2002. She currently oversees a laboratory of 13 post-doctoral fellows, students and technicians who are focusing their research efforts on the identification and characterization of human genes related to cancer, utilizing both computational and experimental approaches.
The TWAS ROLAC Young Scientist Prize was established in 2006 to honor young investigators in Latin American and the Caribbean who have made excellent contributions to the advancement of science. Each of the four recipients, representing the fields of Medical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Physics, were awarded a USD 2000 prize at the award ceremony. TWAS, originally named “Third World Academy of Sciences,” is an international organization that aims to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development of the southern hemisphere.