News Brief

Dr. Deitra Lowdermilk, a professor at UNC’s School of Nursing, recently received the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses’ Award of Excellence in Education.

The association represents more than 22,000 health-care professionals nationwide and is committed to delivering superior health care to women and newborns in hospitals, and home-health and ambulatory-care settings. Each year, the association presents its Award of Excellence in Education to a member with an outstanding history of educating colleagues and others.

Lowdermilk teaches undergraduate students in maternity nursing courses and provides continuing education for the nursing staff at the N.C. Women’s Hospital, a component of the UNC Health Care System.

She has published in peer-reviewed journals, written two maternity and women’s health texts and created teaching materials to address emerging challenges in nursing education.

Her textbooks are used in more than 400 nursing schools nationwide and in nine other countries. Named the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year twice, her "Maternity Nursing" is the top-selling maternity textbook nationwide and has been translated into three languages.

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Dr. Linda A. Dykstra, dean of UNC’s Graduate School, recently received the College on Problems of Drug Dependence’s Mentorship Award, which recognizes a person who is especially influential in the development of the research careers of young scientists studying drug addiction.

Dykstra, also Kenan distinguished professor in UNC’s departments of psychology and pharmacology and the Curriculum in Neurobiology, received the award at the organization’s annual meeting

Dykstra has been the major research adviser for many predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows and she has directed a National Institute on Drug Abuse-supported training program in research related to drug abuse for the past 15 years.  She also directs a National Institute of General Medical Sciences Bridge Program designed to encourage students from underrepresented groups to pursue doctoral training in biomedical sciences.

She is a past president of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and is an elected member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. She chairs the Behavioral Pharmacology Division of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and is vice chair of the N.C. Association of Biomedical Research.

The Mentorship Award is presented annually by the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the largest and oldest organization for the scientific study of drug dependence and addictions. 

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Dr. Franck Polleux, assistant professor of pharmacology at UNC’s School of Medicine, is one of 15 scientists recently selected nationwide as a 2005 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences.

Polleux, who joined UNC’s faculty in 2002, will receive $240,000 over four years to support his research at the UNC Neuroscience Center. He will explore the molecular mechanisms guiding how different neurons make connections in the developing neocortex, the region of the brain generally associated with intelligence.

The neocortex is made up of two main types of neurons, each with vastly different structures and connection responsibilities. Little, however, is known about the molecules that direct their activity. In previous research, Polleux determined that a molecule called Neurogenin2 is essential in directing one type of neuron to form the appropriate connections.

Now, using cutting-edge genetic techniques and a novel method he designed for observing individual neurons form networks in laboratory culture, Polleux plans to establish how Neurogenin2 actually works and to identify the molecule that directs the other neuron type. The results could help scientists and clinicians better understand diseases like autism and schizophrenia, where the connections go awry.

Since 1985, the Pew Scholars Program has provided support to investigators in the early stages of their careers who show outstanding promise in the basic and clinical sciences. The program is funded through a grant to the University of California at San Francisco by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

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Photo URLs:

Lowdermilk: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/Dee%20Lowdermilk%20portrait%2061.jpg

Polleux: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/Franck%20Polleux.jpg

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu