University of Colorado Boulder biologist Leslie Leinwand has been selected as a member of the 2014 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which honors the leading 鈥渢hinkers and doers鈥� from each generation, including scientists, scholars, writers and artists.
Leinwand鈥攃hief scientific officer for CU-Boulder鈥檚 BioFrontiers Institute and a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology鈥攊s an expert in cardiovascular disease.
鈥淗er election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an outstanding recognition of Leslie鈥檚 scientific contributions to understanding the biology of the heart,鈥� said BioFrontiers Institute Director Tom Cech.
鈥淟eslie has made a career of fearlessly and creatively approaching challenges, like heart disease, by searching for answers beyond her field and beyond what we think could be possible,鈥� said Cech, also a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry. 鈥淭his unique view of science also is giving the students in her lab and in her classroom the tools and perspectives they will need to solve the biomedical challenges of the future.鈥�
Leinwand鈥檚 research opens the door to the possibility of personalized treatment for heart disease. She has shown that the mechanisms of heart disease differ between males and females and that the genetic risk of the disease is impacted by both gender and diet.
Leinwand鈥檚 lab also has studied the blood of Burmese pythons, which has the unusual property of greatly increasing the size of the snake鈥檚 internal organs, including the heart, after a large meal, a feature that could also have implications for combating human heart disease. Her research has shown that this enlargement shares features with the response of the human heart to chronic exercise.
Among the 204 new members of the academy, who will be inducted at an October ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., are Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dan Shechtman, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ann Marie Lipinski, atmospheric scientist Inez Fung, novelist and screenwriter John Irving, actor and director Al Pacino, musician Ralph Stanley and artist Kerry James Marshall. The full list of members is online at .
With Leinwand鈥檚 election, a total of 29 CU-Boulder faculty members have been inducted into the academy.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780, and members have included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill.
Contact:
Leslie Leinwand, 303-492-7606
Leslie.Leinwand@colorado.edu
Laura Snider, CU media relations, 303-735-0528
Laura.Snider@colorado.edu
Leslie Leinwand visits her lab in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotech Building at the University of Colorado Boulder. (Photo by Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)
