ICS 2014 Awards

George Britton

Professor George Britton is Professor Emeritus University at the School of Biological Sciences in Liverpool and earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D.in chemistry at Sheffield University. He ventured into the carotenoid field as a post-doc with T.W.Goodwin at University of Wales and moved with Goodwin to the University of Liverpool. It was there that he became addicted to carotenoids, and pursued research on them at the University of Liverpool, Department of Biochemistry (later the School of Biological Sciences), publishing numerous papers and reviews.

He is also author/editor of 17 books, notably the Carotenoids series, and the Carotenoids Handbook, published in 2004. Professor Britton served as President of the International Carotenoid Society from its inauguration in 1996 until 2002. He organised the International Symposia on Carotenoids in Liverpool in 1981 and in Edinburgh in 2005, and has been involved in organising and presenting several carotenoids workshops in Europe, Asia and South America.

Since retiring from the University of Liverpool, Professor Britton continues to be active in the carotenoid field, advising on research projects and training programmes around the world, and writing.

OTTO ISLER AWARD 2014: For a lifetime of achievement in research on carotenoid chemistry and of dedicated service to the carotenoid field

Harry A. Frank

Professor Harry A. Frank  obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1972 from Memphis State University, his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Boston University in 1977, and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics at the University of California, Berkeley. 

In 1980 he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Connecticut where he currently holds the title of Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. He has been a visiting researcher at the Centre Études de Saclay, France, and at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and in 1995 he was a J. William Fulbright Scholar at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. 

His research uses steady-state and time-resolved optical and magnetic resonance spectroscopic techniques to elucidate the structure and function of carotenoids in photosynthetic organisms and other biological systems.

Xiang-Dong Wang

Dr. Xiang-Dong Wang earned his medical degree from Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China, and his PhD degree in Nutritional Biochemistry at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He completed resident training at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital and postdoctoral research at Department of Medicine, Joslin Diabetics Center, Harvard Medical School.  Presently, he is the Director of the Nutrition and Cancer Biology Laboratory and a senior scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA-Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston.  He is also a Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Nutrition Program, at Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University. 

Dr. Wang is a well-recognized research scientist in the field of nutrition and chronic disease prevention, with special emphasis on how dietary components, in particular carotenoids, and other exogenous factors (e.g., tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, high fat diet/obese and chemical carcinogen exposure) modify molecular and genetic pathways which alter the development of cancers. Dr. Wang’s research has contributed greatly to our knowledge of the excentric cleavage metabolism of carotenoids into biological active compounds and the functions of carotenoids in chronic disease prevention using cell culture and animal models (e.g., ferret) as well as translational human study.  Dr. Wang has been the recipient of multiple awards from the NIH and the USDA. He has published more than 130 of peer-reviewed original research manuscripts, reviews and book chapters and given a number of invited presentations throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. He was an elected Vice Chair and Co-Chair for the Gordon Research Conference on Carotenoids in 2007 and 2013.

National recognition for his work was acknowledged by the American Society of Nutrition, which bestowed him with the 2005 E.L.R. Stokstad Award, given for outstanding fundamental research in nutrition and the 2011 Mary Swartz Rose Senior Investigator Award in recognition of his outstanding research on the safety and efficacy of bioactive compounds for human health. Internationally, Dr. Wang received the Charles-Lieber-Memorial Lecture Award of the Congress of European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism in recognition of his outstanding research on the alcohol and retinoid interaction in 2010.

Antonio Meléndez

Professor Antonio Meléndez  has a PhD in Pharmacy from Universidad de Sevilla (2005), where he is Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science. He carries out his research in the Food Colour & Quality group. He has multidisciplinary training on carotenoids and other dietary compounds acquired at Universidad de Sevilla (Food Science), University of Liverpool (Biological Sciences, G. Britton´s lab), University of London (Plant Sciences, P. Fraser and P. Bramley´s lab) and USDA-HNRCA at Tufts University, Boston (Nutrition and Health. X-D. Wang´s lab.).

He has been a fellow of very competitive international and national research programmes like Marie Curie, Juan de la Cierva and Ramon y Cajal (2005-12). He is the coordinator of the CYTED-funded “Ibero-American network for the study of CARS as food ingredients (IBERCAROT)” comprising >50 groups (academia, industry, cooperation for development) from 15 countries. He has also led the implementation of the COST action “European network to advance carotenoid research and applications in agro-food and health” that brings together the main carotenoid laboratorios in Europe and neighbour countries. Some of his awards and achievements are the Extraordinary Prize of Doctorate of Universidad de Sevilla (2006), the Manuel Losada Villasante Award to the Excellence in Agrifood Research (2014) and the International Carotenoid Society George Britton Award for Young Investigator (2014). He is an elected councilor of the International Carotenoid Society and has chaired the international workshops “Carotenoids as Food Ingredients” (Seville, Spain, 2012) and  “Panorama of Carotenoid Research in Ibero-America”. (San José de Costa Rica, 2014). He has published over 60 papers (more than 30 as first or senior author) and has been an invited speaker in several international congressES. Currently he is the principal investigator of several research projects and contracts.

He referees research projects for European and American agencies as well as papers for more than 30 journals. Currently he serves in the editorial board of 3 of them. More info: http://investigacion.us.es/sisius/sis_showpub.php?idpers=3855

Dr. Harold Furr, (retired) – University of Connecticut for his lifetime contributions as a researcher in the area of vitamin A and carotenoid nutrition and his dedicated contributions to the Carotenoid Interactive Research Group (CARIG) and the International Carotenoid Society.

Professor Richard A. Bone, Department of Physics, Florida International University, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the elucidation of the macular pigment and the role of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin in the human retina.

Dr. Kurt Bernhardt, CaroteNature, GmbH,  in recognition of his contributions to carotenoid synthesis, , carotenoid science and his service and commitment to the International Carotenoid Society.

Dr. Wolfgang Schalch, DSM Kaiseraugst, Switzerland, for his contributions to carotenoid science, particularly the uptake of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin into the human retina and his outstanding commitment and service to the International Carotenoid Society.

Recipients of Young Scientist Speaker & Poster prizes, JULY 2014.

Support for these Awards was graciously provided by Frederic Jouhet, President & CEO, A.M.S. Biotek, LLC – Poster Awards

First Place  – Bruna Paolo M. Rafacho

THE EFFECT OF BETA-CRYPTOXANTHIN SUPPLEMENTATION ON HEPATIC STEATOSIS AND INFLAMMATION IN BETA-CAROTENE-9’10’-OXYGENASE KNOCKOUT MICE   144
Poster #21       Bruna Paola M. Rafacho, Chun Liu, Yan Mei Dong, Johannes von Lintig and Xiang-Dong Wang

Second Place – Vanesa Mendez

DIRECT OBSERVATION OF DIFFERENCES OF CAROTENOID POLYENE CHAIN CIS/TRANS ISOMERS RESULTING FROM STRUCTURAL TOPOLOGY      133
Poster #37       Vanesa Mendez, Emily R. Schenk, Mark E. Ridgeway, Melvin A. Park, Francisco Fernandez-Lima, and John T. Landrum

Third Place – Youn-Kyung Kim

EXPLORING THE FUNCTION OF BETA-CAROTENE 15,15’-OXYGENASE IN RETINOID AND LIPID METABOLISM       111
Poster #19       Youn-Kyung Kim, Joseph L. Dixon, Anita Brinker, Michael Zuccaro and Loredana Quadro

Fourth Place – Rachel E. Kopec

STABILITY OF CAROTENOIDS THROUGH THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS: IN VITRO STUDIES OF OXIDATION   113
Poster #20        Rachel E. Kopec, Patrick Borel, Charles Demarchelier, Michel Carail, and Catherine Caris-Veyrat
 

LYCOPENE SUPPLEMENTATION INHIBITS HIGH SATURATED-FAT DIET-PROMOTED HEPATIC TUMORIGENESIS VIA DIFFERENTIAL MECHANISMS DEPENDING ON BETA-CAROTENE-9’,10’-OXYGENASE EXPRESSION IN MICE Blanche C. Ip, Chun Liu, Donald E. Smith, Johannes von Lintig and Xiang-Dong Wang

Second Place – Joana Corte-Real

SETTING UP MODELS FOR STUDYING THE EFFECT OF DIETARY MINERALS ON BIOAVAILABILITY ASPECTS OF CAROTENOIDS Joana Corte-Real,  Elke Richling, Lucien Hoffmann and Torsten Bohn

#Third Place (TIE!) – Joshua Smith  &   Rachel Moran

SCREENING AND SELECTION OF HIGH LUTEIN AND ALPHA-TOCOPHEROL PRODUCING CARROT CELL CULTURE LINES FOR 13C ISOTOPIC LABELING AND IN VIVO BIOLOCALIZATION STUDIES Joshua W. Smith, Randy B. Rogers, Stanislav S. Rubakhin, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Elizabeth J. Johnson, Martha Neuringer, Matthew J. Kuchan, and John W. Erdman, Jr.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIETARY INTAKE OF LUTEIN (L) AND ZEAXANTHIN (Z) AND THEIR CONCENTRATIONS IN SERUM:  INTRODUCTION OF A NOVEL L/Z DIETARY SCREENER Rachel Moran, Elizabeth Johnson, Jim Stack, Kwadwo Akuffo, Ekaterina Loskutova, Stephen Beatty and John Nolan