North Carolina Health and Life Sciences Awards

The North Carolina Health & Life Sciences Awards are designed to recognize and celebrate significant accomplishments in research and development through three awards:

• Mind to Market: The organization that is chosen for this award will have successfully taken a concept through research and development and created a marketable product/procedure that has the potential to make a great impact.
• Breakthrough Research: The individual or organization chosen for this award is engaged in promising and innovative research that has the potential to solve problems of great importance to science or society.
• Promise for Tomorrow: The individual or group chosen for this award represents the future of science as demonstrated through the project nominated.

These three awards will be presented during the 2010 Dinner of Champions.

Criteria for eligibility:

1. Awards are given based on evaluation of a nominated individual’s/organization’s project
2. Projects completed or in process during the 2009 and 2010 calendar years are eligible for consideration
3. Nominated individuals and organizations must have maintained a residence in North Carolina or have executed the work being considered in North Carolina during this period
4. An organization may be a business, educational institution, association, or any other coalition, which is for-profit or not-for-profit
5. Self-nominations are welcome
6. Note that these awards are NOT specific to multiple sclerosis or neurological projects, and are open to all in the health and life sciences arena.

Selection:

1. Nominations will be evaluated by a review board of health and life science professionals selected by the Dinner of Champions committee
2. Finalists will be notified August 27, 2010
3. Award recipients will be announced at the Dinner of Champions on September 23, 2010

Nomination Materials:

1. The Award Nomination Cover Form must be submitted as the cover page for the nomination materials - download the cover form here
2. A letter of nomination, not to exceed two pages, must be submitted, clearly indicating why the individual or organization should be honored. The nomination letter must include the following:
1. Indication of the award for which the nomination applies
2. Description of the organization or individual to be considered
3. Description of the project to be considered
4. Way in which the project satisfies the award criteria
3. The nomination package may include supporting documentation on the organization, individual, and/or project, not to exceed ten pages

Deadline for Nominations:

1. All nominations must be received by 5:00pm EDT Friday, August 13, 2010
2. Materials may be hand-delivered, mailed, faxed or emailed to:

Shannon Hinson, Vice President of Development
National MS Society, Eastern NC Chapter
3101 Industrial Drive, Suite 210
Raleigh NC 27609
919-834-9822 (fax)
shannon.hinson@nct.nmss.org

2009 Awards and Results:

• The Mind to Market Award was awarded to nContact Surgical. nContact has developed a novel technology for creating lesions on a beating heart through a minimally invasive approach without chest incisions or ports. This technology offers a closed chest option for the treatment of arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation.
• The Breakthrough Research Award was presented to Inspire Pharmaceuticals for their innovative clinical development program for denufosol tetrasodium for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. The denufosol molecule bypasses the primary lung defect in patients with cystic fibrosis, which means it can be used to treat all CF patients, regardless of genotype, to improve lung function and delay the progression of the disease.
• The Promise for Tomorrow Award recognized the HIV Genome Structure Team led by Kevin Weeks of the UNC Department of Chemistry in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, which consists of Joe Watts, Kristen Dang, Rob Gorelick, Chris Leonard, Julian Bess, Ron Swanstrom, and Christina Burch. Together, the team decoded the structure of the entire genome of the human immunodeficiency virus. The results of this study have widespread implications for understanding strategies that viruses use to infect humans, suggest a new component of the genetic code in all organisms, and have long-term potential to accelerate antiviral drug development.