mterrazas – Research Awards

Jessica Kissinger

mterrazas on March 2, 2016

Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award

Jessica Kissinger, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Genetics and former director of the UGA Institute of Bioinformatics, has focused her interdisciplinary career on the question of how parasites evolve. She has been a driving force behind the groundbreaking effort to create and maintain novel bioinformatics databases covering omics data for hundreds of dangerous pathogens. The Eukaryotic Pathogen, Vector, and Host Informatics Resources knowledgebase (VEuPathDB.org) is an integrated, centralized resource for data mining on more than 500 organisms. Databases searches are free, permitting researchers to gain insights into and test hypotheses that may pave the way for new approaches to treating or preventing diseases such as malaria and Cryptosporidium (a waterborne parasite). Kissinger has used the databases and other bioinformatics tools to make remarkable discoveries, including tracing the evolution and movement of genes within the genomes of Apicomplexa, a phylum of microscopic parasites. She hosts bioinformatics workshops worldwide, helping to make these tools more accessible.

Robert Woods

mterrazas on February 18, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2024

Robert J. Woods, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, has received international recognition for his innovative research in glycoscience—the chemical biology and biomedical impact of complex carbohydrates (glycans) covering surfaces of cells and viruses. His work is transformational, applying expertise in molecular structures and computational modeling to understand glycan structure and function. By integrating experimental data with molecular dynamics calculations, Woods has illustrated that the space occupied by glycans in both the HIV envelope protein and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein modulates immune recognition and can help guide vaccine design. He developed a web environment for building complex glycans that allows users to computationally explore the molecular dynamics of glycans and their interactions with other biomolecules. Woods launched the company, Lectenz Bio, funded by National Institutes of Health grants and contracts, to produce reagents and platforms for the glycoscience community, and recently founded Oak House, Athens’ first distillery.