Gail Mandel, PhD, receives Medical Research Foundation of Oregon award

Each year, distinguished faculty from around the state are recognized by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon for leadership and innovation in science. This year, the MRF announced its 2011 awardees on November 9 at the Governor Hotel in Downtown Portland. One of the four 2011 recipients was OHSU’s Gail Mandel, Ph.D., senior scientist at the Vollum Institute. Dr. Mandel received the Foundation’s Discovery Award for her achievement in neuroscience.

About Dr. Mandel

Dr. Mandel is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the second Oregon woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She isolated and sequenced the cDNA from the mammalian sodium channel gene, helping to form the first molecular understanding of the sodium channel. Her work in gene expression provided an explanation for how neurons in the developing brain acquire their specific characteristics.

Correction: We originally wrote that Dr. Mandel was the first woman from Oregon to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. That honor actually belongs to Dr. Jane Lubchenco, currently the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read about the other MRF award recipients.