Convocation to Honor Two President’s Scholars

Arnett and Dowhan receive university's highest awards; event honors faculty from each school

Two men who have equally garnered national and university accolades will receive the President’s Scholar Awards from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D.

Frank C. Arnett Jr., M.D.

William Dowhan, Ph.D.

With a combined history of 53 years at the health science center, Frank C. Arnett Jr., M.D., and William Dowhan, Ph.D., will share the Faculty Honors Convocation stage beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the Edwin C. Hornberger Conference Center.

Each is a faculty member of the UT Medical School at Houston and UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston, and each works in molecular medicine to improve the lives of patients suffering from some of the most debilitating diseases. These awards are the highest faculty awards given by the health science center, and each carries a $5,000 prize.

The annual Faculty Honors Convocation is an opportunity for the health science center community to honor the achievements of faculty members from each of the six schools. The convocation this year will include a talk by UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof, J.D.

A reception for the honorees and their families, friends and co-workers will follow in the conference center lobby.

Excellence in Teaching

Arnett, holder of the Elizabeth Bidgood Chair in Rheumatology and professor of internal medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, will receive the President’s Scholar Award for Teaching.

He is being recognized for achievements in educating students, residents and fellows, mentoring others, and service to national scholarly organizations, including serving as past president of Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. Since he joined the Medical School faculty in 1984, Arnett’s students have bestowed on him 22 teaching awards, including the prestigious John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award twice and the Herbert L. and Margaret W. DuPont Master Clinical Teaching Award. He is a former chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine.

Combining teaching and patient care, Arnett says, “I like to show students by example how to critically evaluate patients using traditional clinical skills. At the same time, having good history and physical skills won’t help if the students don’t have the fundamental knowledge they need to integrate these into a clear picture of what the patient is telling them.”

Arnett’s research focuses on the genes and proteins that lie at the root of multi-system autoimmune diseases like scleroderma and lupus – diseases in which the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues. Autoimmune diseases affect 3 to 5 percent of the U.S. population with 1.2 million new cases showing up every five years. His discoveries have resulted in the development of RNA interference (RNAi) as a possible defense against scleroderma.

His grateful patients benefit from the research, while his peers have ranked him as one of the Best Doctors in America for the past four years.

Excellence in Research

The recipient of the President’s Scholar Award for Research, Dowhan is the holder of the John S. Dunn Sr. Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He joined the Medical School faculty in 1972 as one of the founding members of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is a former interim chairman of that department.

Dowhan was singled out for his contributions to research, particularly his work on the role of lipid-protein interactions in the structure and function of membranes. His many honors have included the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Avanti Award in Lipids and selection as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

His first National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant has reached its 32nd year of continuous funding. His longrunning grant has become one of the prestigious NIH MERIT Awards, which are given to research that has received at least 10 years of funding and has ranked in the top 10 percent in recent NIH funding cycles. The MERIT Award represents $2.4 million over the next five years with an anticipated similar amount for the following five years.

This type of funding allows Dowhan to do some high-risk experiments. “It encourages you to take some chances that you may not normally do if you had to get a renewal in a few years, and the results could prove to be a great breakthrough,” he said.

Dowhan’s research has shown that phospholipid molecules are integral parts of important cellular processes, such as DNA replication, cell division, assembly of proteins, protein function and the ways that proteins fold into a proper three-dimensional structure. Research into protein folding eventually may lead to treatments for such illnesses as cystic fibrosis, mad cow disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

By Dawna Jarvis, Public Affairs