Saka Named 2008 Pew Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences
(June 2008) – The Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) recently announced that ten promising biomedical scientists, including Alex Saka, a post-doctoral associate in the Valdivia lab, have been named 2008 Pew Latin American Fellows in the Biomedical Sciences. Funded by Pew through a grant to UCSF, the highly competitive fellowship program offers talented young Latin American scientists $60,000 for a two-year training period. The award is administered by the sponsoring U.S. institution, which supplements the stipend with at least $5,000 a year and also provides medical benefits for the fellow. Following the two year fellowship, the Program will issue an additional $35,000 award to the sponsoring institution to purchase equipment and supplies for the fellow to establish a laboratory in his or her home country.

“Pew’s Latin American Fellows Program gives these exemplary scientists the opportunity to further their knowledge, and it promotes exchange and collaboration between researchers in the United States and Latin America,” said Rebecca W. Rimel, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
 
The Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences was launched in 1991 to help develop a cadre of highly trained Latin American scientists who could stimulate and contribute to the growth of quality biomedical science and foster collaboration between scientists in Latin America and the U.S.  Since 1991, the Trusts has invested more than $11 million to fund more than 150 fellows, close to 80 percent of whom have returned to their home countries. Applicants from all Central and South American countries are invited to apply, and selection is made by a distinguished national advisory committee chaired by Dr. Torsten N. Wiesel, president emeritus of Rockefeller University and a 1981 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine. ________________________________________________________________

Hector Alex Saka, Ph.D., received a doctorate in chemical sciences from the National University of Cordoba, Argentina in 2006.  He will train with Dr. Raphael Valdivia (2004 Pew Scholar) at the Duke University Medical Center.  Dr. Saka intends to explore the molecular mechanisms that allow the bacterium Chlamydia to survive and grow inside human cells.  Chlamydia trachomatis is sexually transmitted and is the leading cause of preventable infectious blindness.  Once the bug infects a human cell, it holes up inside a protective structure called an inclusion.  But how Chlamydia is able to get the nutrients it needs to survive while sequestered inside that fortress is unclear.  Recent work from Dr. Valdivia’s lab suggests that Chlamydia can secure fats—which are necessary for the bacterium to be able to replicate—by capturing lipid droplets made by the host cell.  Using a range of sophisticated genetic, molecular, biological and microscopic techniques, Dr. Saka will try to piece together the molecular machinery that Chlamydia uses to secure these precious lipid droplets.  His findings could shed light on a previously unknown way that parasites can subvert their host cells, and ultimately could lead to the development of novel therapeutics for parasitic diseases.

To review a complete list of the 2008 Pew Fellows in the Biomedical Sciences, please visit the Pew Charitable Trusts web site.

Contact: Kip Patrick, 202.552.2135