McGovern Institute hands out neuroscience award

The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has announced that Thomas Jessell of Columbia University is the winner of the 2013 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience. The $100,000 prize, which is endowed through a gift from Merck, is awarded annually by the McGovern Institute to recognize outstanding advances in the field of neuroscience.

Jessell received the award for his research on the embryonic development of the nervous system. His primary interest is the development of the spinal cord, which because of its relative simplicity and evolutionary conservation offers an ideal system for understanding general principles of central nervous system development.

Jessell’s work has revealed the molecular mechanisms responsible for establishing the spatial organization of the spinal cord. He has identified diffusible signaling molecules that act during early development to provide "positional information" to embryonic cells, instructing them to differentiate in ways that are appropriate for their specific locations within the cord. Jessell has also studied the molecular mechanisms by which developing cells respond to these positional cues. This work has led to the identification of a transcriptional code, whereby a set of regulatory genes act in combination to specify the many different cell types that comprise the mature spinal cord.

The discovery of these genetic mechanisms has made it possible to identify and manipulate the activity of specific classes of neurons with great precision, and Jessell has used this approach to reveal the link between functional circuitry and motor behavior.

In addition to fundamental questions, Jessell’s work has important practical implications for the emerging field of regenerative medicine. There is great interest in stem cells as a renewable source of cells for transplantation therapy and drug discovery, but for this approach to succeed, stem cells must be converted to the desired cell type. Jessell’s work on transcriptional control of neural identity provides a roadmap for such efforts, and he has demonstrated its feasibility by converting embryonic stem cells into spinal motor neurons, the same cell types that degenerate in diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The implications of his research go well beyond motor neuron diseases; many disorders of the nervous system affect particular cell types, and the ability to convert stem cells to specific classes of neurons may eventually find wide applications in clinical neuroscience.

The McGovern Institute will award the Scolnick Prize to Dr. Jessell on Monday, April 1, 2013. He will deliver a lecture entitled “Sifting Circuits for Motor Control" at 4 p.m. that day, to be followed by a reception, at the McGovern Institute in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, 43 Vassar Street (building 46, room 3002). The event is free and open to the public.

View the original article here

Spanish eatery hopes world best restaurant award boosts tourism

By Inmaculada Sanz

MADRID | Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:26pm EDT

MADRID (Reuters) - An avante-garde restaurant run by three brothers in north-east Spain hopes that being crowned the world's best restaurant will boost food tourism in recession-bound Spain.

El Celler de Can Roca in Girona scooped the prestigious prize from Britain's Restaurant magazine on Monday, making Spain's coastal region north of Barcelona the top place in the world to eat once again.

The restaurant ended Danish experimental eatery Noma's three-year run in the No. 1 slot. Noma took the title from Catalan chef Ferran Adria's El Bulli, which is 30 miles from El Celler, and held the crown for four years.

El Celler, which the Roca brothers opened in 1986 and boasts three Michelin stars, favors Catalan ingredients such as fresh seafood and playful presentation, serving caramelized olives on bonsai trees to diners.

Dishes at the avant-garde restaurant include desserts based on perfume ingredients, including Calvin Klein's Eternity, ice cream that tastes like smoke from Cuban cigars, and "Dublin Bay prawns with curry smoke".

"The prize means we can strengthen our brand and in terms of promoting our country it's extremely important," sommelier Josep Roca told radio station Cadena Ser on Tuesday.

"We have to take advantage of this to show off our country, philosophy, way of being, living, eating and in some way use it to our advantage in terms of tourism."

Josep and his brothers Joan and Jordi run the restaurant after learning the trade at their parents' Can Roca restaurant, also in Girona.

Joan, who spent one season under Adria at the now closed El Bulli, is head chef, while Jordi takes care of desserts.

The eatery, which has been ranked among the world's top five restaurants for the last five years, offers two tasting menus featuring over 20 dishes for 135 euros ($180) and 165 euros.

"The Roca brothers have managed to reach an extraordinary level based on dialogue, between the sweet, the savory and wine, in a way no other restaurant in the world has managed," said Adria, who cried when the award was announced on Monday.

Two restaurants in Spain's northern Basque Country, Mugaritz and Arzak, came in at No. 4 and No. 8 on the list, making Spain the world's top ranking gastronomic destination with three of the top 10 slots.

Elena Arzak, named the best chef in the world two years ago, told Reuters she also thought the rankings could help lift Spain's depressed economy.

Tourism is one of the only bright spots in Spain's economy, which has shrunk for seven consecutive quarters with record unemployment of 27 percent.

"Getting on the list has a major international impact because it encourages food tourism and generates excitement among people who like fine dining," Arzak said.

"People come from all over the world ... recently we've been seeing lots of visitors from Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Canada. It's like you get to travel all over the world without leaving the restaurant, just talking to the people who come in."

(Writing by Clare Kane, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

View the original article here