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July 21: William Kapell Competition–Final Concerto Round with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Aug. 3: 4th Annual Wrenn Scholarship Scramble Sept. 1: Maryland Football vs. Villanova
Sept. 13: Maryland Football vs. West Virginia
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Don't miss this closing Kapell performance featuring three finalists performing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of conductor David Lockington. Competition winners will be announced. |
 Major Gifts, Major ImpactEndowed Professorship Snags Top Scholar for Maryland
At TIGR, Salzberg helped put computers to use to sequence the human genome, an achievement that would change science and open new doors for medical possibilities. But he wanted to return full-time to an academic setting and to a research institute where he could work on cutting edge questions with scientists in many disciplines. He found that and more at Maryland.
The Horvitz endowment, for instance, allows Salzberg to invite distinguished scientists from other institutions to confer with Maryland researchers. Their visits offer unique opportunities for Salzberg's research team to develop new ideas, to establish new scientific collaborations and to explore entrepreneurial initiatives. Development of Promising New Research Salzberg is exactly the kind of person for whom the Horvitz professorship was designed. Since his first day at Maryland, Salzberg's impact has extended well beyond the campus. He has co-authored a groundbreaking study on the large-scale sequencing of the genome of the influenza-A virus, the fast-mutating microbe that causes the flu in humans. The study will give researchers vastly better information for preparing influenza vaccines. In another recently published study, Salzberg and his colleagues found that new forms of the H5N1 avian influenza virus have not only spread west from Asia, but also two of the western strains have recently combined to create a new form of the virus. These findings will help public health officials understand better the movements of this deadly virus and how it could launch a human pandemic. Salzberg and his team, including top young researchers who followed him to Maryland, are now launching a project to sequence all of the microbes in the human body, a huge undertaking that will help other scientists work with these bacteria that both maintain good health and cause illness. Indicative of Maryland's growing strength in merging bioscience and computers, in only two years, Salzberg and the CBCB have been instrumental in bringing together scientists in many fields on campus to develop new technology they can apply to a wide range of human health questions. "One thing we are working on," says Salzberg, "is developing algorithms to exploit new genome sequencing machines that are hundreds of times faster and cheaper than current technology." At this time, sequencing the human genome costs more than $10 million. This new research "offers the promise of the '$1,000 genome' in the not-too-distant future," says Salzberg.  | ||||||
