Claremont, Calif. (May 3, 2010) – Pitzer College alumnus Sam Hasson ’03 was awarded the Journal of Biomolecular Screening Academic Excellence Award by the Society for Biomolecular Sciences (SBS) for his presentation “Developing New Chemical Tools to Study Mitachondrial Protein Translocation.”
Hasson, a molecular biology major at Pitzer, is currently pursuing a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California Los Angeles. After graduating in June, he will move to Washington DC to continue research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on a postdoctoral fellowship. Utilizing high throughput drug discovery and functional genomics, Hasson will study the molecular basis of Parkinson’s disease under the direction of Dr. Richard Youle from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the NIH Chemical Genomics Center.
SBS and the Journal of Biomolecular Screening (JBS) established the JBS Academic Excellence Award to support graduate students in skill-building and career development. Presenters were judged on scientific merit, experimental approach/innovation, presentation and grasp of the subject matter.