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Zoe Cournia Winner of a Connecticut Technology Council Women of Innovation Award
Dr. Zoe Cournia
Zoe Cournia, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University, was awarded the Connecticut Technology Council Women of Innovation Award in the category of Collegian Innovation and Leadership. The CT Technology Council Award honors women in the workforce who are innovators, role models, and leaders in the technology, science, and engineering fields. Dr. Cournia was selected among hundreds of nominees and was announced as a winner in her category on January 29th during the fifth annual Women of Innovation awards dinner at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.
Having received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, Dr. Cournia is currently working on the discovery of novel anti-cancer agents, and is a lecturer at Yale College teaching a class entitled, "Computer Modeling of Biomolecules." Nominated by a colleague, Dr. Cournia was very surprised and pleased to receive the award. “It’s such a great feeling to be recognized for my work in the field, not only for my research, but for leadership as well. I wasn’t expecting to be granted such an honor, but I am glad to have my potential recognized,” said Dr. Cournia.
Dr. Cournia’s research work with anti-cancer agents involves computer-aided drug discovery and design, which she explained is a much more effective method than traditional drug discovery. “The use of computational methods is rapidly growing in order to streamline and expedite drug discovery, design, development, and optimization. Rational computer-aided drug design is more effective because it aims at understanding the molecular basis of a disease,” said Dr. Cournia.
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has been the main focus of Dr. Cournia’s research. MIF is a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule, or cytokine, and has recently been defined as a pro-oncogenic factor that is implicated in multiple aspects of tumor growth. Deactivation of MIF by antibodies or the inhibition of MIF binding its receptor, CD74, reduces cellular growth and lessens tumor growth and angiogenesis. Dr. Cournia is working on a study to target and deactivate the MIF protein by small molecule inhibitors through a joint computational and experimental study.
“Cancer is at the moment the second cause of death in the United States, and with heart disease drugs constantly improving, it is projected to be the leading cause of death worldwide by 2010. Therefore, I feel it is very important to combine the efforts of biology, chemistry, and computer science in order to fight this disease,” said Dr. Cournia. Her work has led the discovery of novel compounds that are now employed in pre-clinical studies.
As 2007-2008 co-President of the Yale Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Society (YPBS), Dr. Cournia coordinated bio-technology and pharmaceutical-related activities in the Yale community and beyond. Dr. Cournia also serves on the board of the Postdoctoral Advisory committee at Yale. To address the lack of travel funds for international postdocs, Dr. Cournia wrote a travel grant proposal and helped raise $20,000 to create the “Postdoctoral Travel Fund.” Moreover, in 2007 Dr. Cournia created the YPBS Equity Research Club (YERC) in order to bridge the gap between natural sciences and finance at Yale.
“I appreciate the CT Technology Council and all the work they do promoting women in science. I am delighted that they recognized my efforts in cancer research, teaching and mentoring, as well as in promoting interactions among students, faculty, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and the Yale community as a whole. I am truly honored to be working in such a great academic environment such as Yale,” said Dr. Cournia.