Dr. Makoto Ishii, an assistant professor of neurology and neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, has been awarded the prestigious Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research from the National Institute on Aging and the American Federation for Aging Research.
The Beeson award program supports physician-scientists who are committed to advancing the study of geriatric illness and health. The program seeks to groom these researchers to become leaders in the field by providing financial awards and granting access to a distinguished network of Beeson mentors and alumni. The program selects a limited number of junior faculty from medical schools nationwide to receive a $600,000 to $800,000 grant for three to five years of mentored aging-related research.
Dr. Ishii received one of eight Beeson awards given nationwide in 2015, joining more than 200 Beeson scholars including many who are chairs and division chiefs at major academic centers around the country. An important component of the award is mentorship and academic development, which will be provided by a mentorship team led by Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director of the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute.
"I feel honored and am very thankful for all of the support that I receive at Weill Cornell Medicine, and from my mentors first and foremost," Dr. Ishii said. "I'm elated — it's a very big honor to receive at this point of my career. It helps a lot in terms of establishing myself as a future career clinician-scientist."
Dr. Ishii investigates the effect that Alzheimer's disease has on the region of the brain known as the hypothalamus, and how that in turn affects the body's metabolism, hormonal balances, weight and other vital physiological functions. While Alzheimer's is commonly seen as primarily associated with age-related memory loss, there are many other symptoms that present themselves, one of the most visible of which is rapid weight loss that occurs sometimes even before the onset of memory loss.
"When I was a neurology resident, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's," Dr. Ishii said. "I was only able to visit her about once a year — it really hits home when it happens in your family. And I personally saw her lose significant amount of weight."
With the five-year grant, Dr. Ishii will continue to investigate the mechanisms underlying weight loss in Alzheimer's disease by combining detailed molecular studies in mice with studies using clinically-relevant human samples from volunteers. Dr. Ishii hopes that these studies reveal weight loss as an important clinical aspect of Alzheimer's disease, which may lead to the development of new therapies and diagnostic tools.
"Winning this award was really a great feeling," Dr. Ishii said. "This is not just a personal achievement, but rather an award that also recognizes the superb mentorship and rich supportive academic environment here at Weill Cornell Medicine, which enables clinician-scientists, such as myself, the opportunity to follow their research intuition and tackle important open medical questions."