Holtzman, Bateman win Chancellor’s Innovation Award

David M. Holtzman, MD, and Randall J. Bateman, MD, have been chosen as co-recipients of the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis.

Holtzman

Holtzman, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology, and Bateman, the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology, will be presented with the honor at the Faculty Achievement Awards ceremony Saturday, Dec. 7, in Simon Hall.

Also to be presented at the ceremony are 2013 faculty achievement awards for Richard H. Gelberman, MD, the Fred C. Reynolds Professor and head of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and James V. Wertsch, PhD, vice chancellor for international affairs, director of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy and the Marshall S. Snow Professor in Arts & Sciences.

Gelberman will receive the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award, while Wertsch will receive the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award. Visit here to read an earlier article about their achievements.

Bateman

The Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is given on an occasional basis to faculty members whose research has led to the successful development of ideas or businesses that have brought great benefit to others.

“For years, David Holtzman and Randall Bateman have been making prominent and pioneering contributions not only to the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease but also to our basic understanding of the causes of this disorder,” said Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Their work and that of their colleagues at the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) has given the world new hope of one day slowing or stopping this devastating condition.”

Bateman’s and Holtzman’s accomplishments include the development of stable isotope-linked kinetics (SILK), which involves giving human research participants a slightly altered form of one of the amino acids the body uses to make proteins.

The alteration has no effect on the chemistry of the amino acid, but scientists can detect its presence in samples taken from spinal fluid and blood. Through monitoring of the presence of the amino acid in proteins of interest, scientists can track how quickly these proteins are made in and cleared from the central nervous system. Assessing these rates helps scientists understand what is going wrong and look for changes in these problems during clinical trials of new treatments.

To make SILK available to the research community as well as to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, Holtzman and Bateman co-founded a company called C2N Diagnostics in 2007.

Holtzman is a leading expert in researching the underlying mechanisms that lead to Alzheimer’s disease to improve diagnosis and treatment. His research team works with mouse models of Alzheimer’s and with the Knight ADRC. Based on those insights, his lab has developed new treatments for Alzheimer’s.

Bateman is principal investigator of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network Trials Unit, which recently began treating participants who have inherited forms of the disease prior to the onset of symptoms.

Holtzman has five U.S. patents issued and 10 pending. Bateman has two U.S. patents issued and seven pending.

Both are physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Holtzman earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Northwestern University. He completed an internship, residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining the faculty at Washington University in 1994.

Bateman earned bachelor’s degrees from Washington University in biology and electrical engineering. He earned his MD with special emphasis in neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He completed a medical internship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, followed by a neurology residency at Washington University. He became a member of the faculty in 2005.


Washington University School of Medicine’s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.