Gladstone's Robert Mahley to receive Research!America advocacy award

February 10, 2010— Robert W. Mahley, MD, PhD, president of The J. David Gladstone Institutes, will receive Research!America's 2010 Builders of Science Award. The award recognizes his leadership as Gladstone's founding director and president, guiding its growth to become one of the world's foremost independent research institutions, known for its groundbreaking basic science and substantial impact on disease prevention.

Mahley will be honored March 16, 2010, at the 14th Annual Research!America Advocacy Awards event at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.

In 1979, Mahley was recruited by the Gladstone Trustees to lead the new Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, today renowned for its discoveries linking cholesterol to heart disease and leading to important new treatments, such as the statins. He was instrumental in the creation of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology in 1992, which has become one of the world's most innovative and productive centers for research into HIV/AIDS, and the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in 1998, which has helped change the course of research into the causes of Alzheimer's disease and related conditions. In 2004 Mahley led the Institutes' move to a new, state-of-the-art home at the University of California, San Francisco's Mission Bay campus, enhancing Gladstone's collaborative, entrepreneurial culture by bringing all three institutes into one building.

Mahley will step down as Gladstone's president March 1 2010. He will continue his research at Gladstone on apolipoprotein (apo) E and its role in heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and neurodegeneration. Among the many outcomes of his studies has been an understanding of the mechanisms by which apoE4, the major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, actually causes this disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Mahley is a professor of pathology and medicine at UCSF and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

The Builders of Science Award, supported by an anonymous benefactor, honors an individual's achievements in building an outstanding scientific institution.

Other 2010 Research!America Advocacy Award winners are The March of Dimes; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine board chair Robert Klein, JD; and advocate-philanthropist Ann Lurie.

Provided by Gladstone Institutes