Henry J. Binder, M.D., professor of medicine and cellular and molecular physiology, received the Distinguished Mentor Award from the American Gastroenterological Association, the premier professional organization in the field. The award recognizes his leadership in mentoring young physician-scientists and establishing Yale’s Gastrointestinal Research Training Program, which has flourished for 35 years. Binder studies electrolyte transport in the large intestine and the mechanism and treatment of diarrheal diseases.

Christopher K. Breuer, M.D., assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics, has been awarded a Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award. These awards provide grants to junior physician-scientists to help them establish their own clinical research labs. Breuer aims to engineer living blood vessels and heart conduits that can grow along with a patient, which would be a boon to pediatric heart surgeons.

Bernard G. Forget, M.D., professor of medicine and genetics, was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Members of the academy, an independent policy research center, are scholars at the top of their disciplines. Forget researches the mechanisms of gene expression during red blood cell differentiation, as well as the disorders that can result when this process goes awry.

Barbara I. Kazmierczak, M.D., Ph.D., M.S., associate professor of medicine and microbial pathogenesis, and Yorgo E. Modis, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, have received Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Each award provides $500,000 for multidisciplinary research. Kazmierczak studies how Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that frequently causes hospital-acquired infection, is recognized by innate immune defenses. Modis research explores how flaviviruses, such as West Nile and dengue virus, get into cells. Understanding this process could lead to vaccines for these currently untreatable emerging global health threats.

Gil Mor, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, has received the J. Christian Herr Award from the American Society for Reproductive Immunology. This award is given annually to recognize a scientist who has made outstanding achievements in the field. Mor specializes in the immunology of reproductive organs, including implantation and tumor immunology. Recently Mor created a new diagnostic test for early detection of ovarian cancer, and developed new drugs to treat it.

Craig R. Roy, Ph.D., associate professor of microbial pathogenesis, won the 2007 Eli Lilly Award from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The award is the ASM’s oldest and most prestigious prize, and the awardee delivers the Eli Lilly Award Lecture at the society’s annual meeting. Roy studies the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, the agent responsible for Legionnaire’s disease, and how it interacts with cells it infects.

Kim Woodrow, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in biomedical engineering, is one of the five American women recently honored by L’Oréal USA with their 2007 Fellowships for Women in Science. These competitive $40,000 grants are given to encourage women scientists at the beginning of their careers. Woodrow is designing biodegradable nanoparticles that can direct themselves to specific targets in cells and deliver drugs to treat cancer and infectious diseases.

Hongyu Zhao, Ph.D., professor of public health and genetics, was elected a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), an organization that fosters the development and dissemination of theory and applications of statistics and probability. The IMS honored Zhao for his “fundamental contributions to statistical genomics, genetic epidemiology, and computational biology.”