Leif Finkel, Ph.D., professor of bioengineering, has received a $1 million award from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The award will support an interdisciplinary project including Penn faculty from bioengineering, neuroscience and physics. Co-principal investigators are Kwabena Boahen, Institute for Medicine and Engineering (IME) and assistant professor of bioengineering; Diego Contreras and Brian Salzberg, neuroscience; and Arjun Yodh, IME and professor of physics. Supporting scientists are George Gerstein and Larry Palmer from neuroscience. The five-year grant will support a project to develop a new way to image changes in brain cells when learning takes place.

The Health Annex at the Francis J. Myers Recreation Center, the School of Nursing’s family- oriented, community-based practice, was recognized this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration. The practice was one of four local clinics to receive a Community Service Excellence Award. The awards are given “in recognition of the outstanding service and dedication to promoting nursing educational opportunities and providing exceptional primary health care service to the community.”

Alan M. Gewirtz, M.D., received the Scientific Research Award from the American Cancer Society last week for his research on treating cancer patients and his role in training the next generation of cancer researchers. Gewirtz, a recipient last year of the prestigious Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award for Excellence in Bench to Bedside Research, has pioneered the application of modern genetics to the treatment of cancer and is currently the world’s leader in a therapy for leukemia that kills only leukemic, not normal, bone marrow cells.