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1998 SDB Best Poster Competition Winners
57th SDB Annual Meeting
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
By Karen Crawford
This year 45 posters representing 13 different areas within development were submitted and eligible for the Best Poster Competition. A panel of eight judges, consisting of four men and four women representing a wide range of areas of interest in developmental biology and professional rank, viewed the posters, interviewed each author and met several times to discuss and select the winners. Posters were evaluated for their overall quality of presentation, technical content, scientific impact and author's intellectual input based on a personal interview. More specifically, the judges demanded a clear, complete story based upon hypothesis driven science. In addition, clarity of the figure headings, overall poster organization, the contribution of the presenting author and their ability to place the work into a historical and scientific context were considered important aspects of the presentation. Posters that demonstrated a great range of technical ability, especially those that combined classical with more current techniques, were considered favorably.
A note of thanks. This competition would not be possible without the wealth of experience and the generous time commitment of our team of judges, and I am truly grateful for their excellent work. In addition, I would also like to thank the Zeiss Corporation for their financial support for the Poster Competition, Academic Press for their generous donations of Developmental Biology subscriptions to the first, second and third place winners, and Scott Gilbert, Rudy Raff and Gary Schoenwolf and their publishing companies, Sinauer Publishing, The University of Chicago Press, and Prentice Hall, for the textbook prizes for this year's Third Place and Honorable Mention awards.
First Place:
Sarah M. Gibbs and James W. Truman. Department of Zoology University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. "Nitric oxide and cGMP regulate Drosophila visual development: In vitro and in vivo analysis of guanylate cyclase mutants."
In this study, Sarah explored the role of nitric oxide and cGMP as signaling pathway components regulating neuronal pathfinding within the Drosophila eye. To understand the role of these molecules in establishing the correct axonal projection patterns within the optic lobe, she used a wide range of approaches, including the use of mutants and rescue, in vitro culture, behavioral studies and electrophysiology. The judges felt that this outstanding poster was visually clear and that the results set the stage for many further studies. In addition, the judges felt that Sarah's knowledge and ability to set her work within the historical context of this field were true strengths.
The First Place winner receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and the airfare for the trip to England to present her work at the British Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting. The British SDB will host Sarah as part of the exchange program between our societies.
Second place:
Richard I. Dorsky1, Julia Yang-Snyder1, Randall T. Moon2, and David W. Raible2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute1 and Department of Biological Structure2, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. "Control of Neural Crest Cell Fate by the Wnt Signaling Pathway."
This work presented a careful and technically elegant series of experiments that clearly demonstrated the functional relationship of graded Wnt signaling in determining neural crest cell commitment to pigment vs. neuronal cell types. The authors exhibited great expertise by using three independent methods, mRNA injection of premigratory neural crest cells, induction of ectopic expression by cell transplantation and DNA injection, and inhibition of the Wnt pathway by injecting mRNA of truncated transcription factors or dominant-negative Wnt.
The Second Place winner receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and a cash prize of one hundred dollars.
Third Place: This year the judges were unanimous in all of their decisions and felt strongly that there should be two third place winners.
Cynthia Yost, Gist H. Farr III, Sarah B. Pierce, Denise M. Ferkey, Michele Chen and David Kimelman. Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. "GBP, A Novel GSK-3 Binding Protein Involved in Dorsal-Ventral Axis Determination in Xenopus."
In this work Cynthia identified a novel protein that is capable of activating the Wnt signaling pathway independent of Wnt. This work required an extraordinary effort involving a technically difficult method.
The Third Place winner receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and Cynthia also received a copy of Scott Gilbert's textbook, Developmental Biology, 5th.ed..
Yanzhen Cui1, Francois Jean2, Gary Thomas2, and Jan L. Christian1. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology1, and Vollum Institute2, Oregon Health Sciences University, School of Medicine, Portland Oregon, OR 97201. "Proteolytic Activation of BMP-4 by Furin and PC6 in vivo."
In this large study, Yanzhen systematically applied a wide variety of specific protease inhibitors to characterize candidate proteases involved in BMP-4 signaling molecule maturation and activation. From a large field, two proteases were shown to act in vivo.
The Third Place winner receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and Yanzhen also received a copy of Rudy Raff's book, The Shape of Life.
Honorable Mention
Jill M. Tomsa and James A. Langeland. Department of Biology, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI 49006. "An Otx homolog from an agnathan vertebrate: Insights into vertebrate head evolution."
Jill receives Honorable Mention for the successful cloning and characterization of the Otx homolog in lamprey. The judges were most impressed by her beautiful in situs, characterization of this important gene and its evolutionary perspective.
Jill received a received a copy of each of Gary Schoenwolf's laboratory manuals and his CD Color Atlas for Developmental Biology.
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