A 2009 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award is being presented to Deborah T. Hung, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Infectious Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Sponsored by Merck Research Laboratories, the Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award is presented in memory of Irving S. Sigal, who was instrumental in the early discovery of therapies to treat HIV/AIDS, to recognize excellence in basic research in medical microbiology and infectious diseases.
Dr. Hung's research focused on the pathogenesis of Vibrio cholerae infection by using chemical genetics and small molecular screening to dissect essential steps in pathogenesis. She published her findingsa new small molecule inhibitor of Vibrio cholerae virulence and intestinal colonization, virstatin, which directly inhibited dimerization of the virulence transcriptional activator ToxTin 2005 in Science.
Currently, Dr. Hung's work focuses on tuberculosis (TB). She has already developed screens to identify small molecules that probe in vitro TB physiology and TB infection of macrophages. Her goal is to understand its persistent state by developing chemicals that can manipulate it and by identifying genes that are essential for it.
Dr. Hung received both her Ph.D. in Chemistry and her M.D. from Harvard. She completed her medical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, a clinical infectious disease fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a clinical fellowship in critical care medicine at Harvard.
The Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award will presented during the 109th General Meeting of the ASM, May 17-21, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 43,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental well-being.