The European Society of Toxicologic Pathology (ESTP) offers every second year an award for a thesis in toxicological pathology, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG.

Winners in 2010:

1. Dr. Elton Rexhepaj
   honored with EUR 5,000
   
   Dr. Rexhepaj receives this award for an excellent thesis entitled 'Quantification of Oncology Biomarkers Using Advanced Image Analysis and Pattern Recognition Approaches'.
   
   In his studies, Dr. Rexhepaj describes the development of automated image analysis and pattern recognition for the quantification of nuclear and membrane receptor expression in immunohistochemical stained sections. These techniques were applied to estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer, lymphocyte subpopulations in lung cancer and HMG-CoA receptors in ovarian cancer. In addition, the staining patterns of a novel biomarker, survivin, were studied in breast cancer. In each phase, Dr. Rexhepaj sequentially developed and refined his techniques and correlated the findings with clinical outcome. Several publications and a patent have resulted from his work.
   
   The algorithms developed are of great interest and applicability to toxicologic pathologists where quantitation of histological changes including immunohistochemical staining is becoming increasingly important.
   
   Reference:
   Rexhepaj E. Quantification of Oncology Biomarkers Using Advanced Image Analysis and Pattern Recognition Approaches. UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, University College Dublin, Ireland.
   
   
2. Dr. Lelia Muriel van Bürck
   honored with EUR 3,000
   
   Dr. van Bürck receives the award for her doctoral thesis entitled 'Clinical and pathomorphological characterization of two diabetic mouse models derived from the Munich ENU mouse mutagenesis project'.
   
   The thesis describes a body of work characterizing two new murine models of the diabetes following mutations of the glucokinase (Gck) gene. Her work involved the use of quantitative real-time PCR, western blot analysis and measurement of glucokinase activity on isolated pancreatic islets and liver homogenates to define the functional consequences of two different mutations. In addition, she fully described the clinicopathological effects of the mutations in both homozygous and heterozygous animals and used quantitative stereology to define the changes in the islets of Langerhans. The quality of her work and its presentation in the thesis was of a very high standard.
   
   The incidence of type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing in the western world and the development of new mouse strains of the disease will enhance further investigations into early diagnosis and treatment of this disease.
   
   Reference:
   Van Bürck LM. Clinical and pathomorphological characterization of two diabetic mouse models derived from the Munich ENU mouse mutagenesis project. Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.
   
   
3. Dr. Susanne Bran
   honored with EUR 2,000
   
   Dr. Bran receives the award for her thesis 'Sexually dimorphic cytochrome P450 gene expression in wildtype and CYP2C18/CYP2C19 transgenic mice'.
   
   The thesis describes the evaluation of cytochrome P450 function in a humanized CYP2C18/CYP2C19 transgenic mouse model in comparison to wild type mice. The phenotype of heterozygous CYP2C18/CYP2C19 transgenic mice was evaluated and investigations undertaken to reveal sex differences in the expression of CYP2C18 and CYP2C19 genes and production of CYP protein in the liver. Further studies were undertaken to show that gonadal hormones and growth hormone affected expression of these genes in the liver but not in intestine, brain or lung.
   
   Development of animal models in which metabolism of xenobiotics more closely matches that of humans is of great interest to toxicologists and this mouse model will serve as a model for investigation of human CYP2C18 and CYP2C19 gene regulation.
   
   Reference:
   Löfgren S. Sexually dimorphic cytochrome P450 gene expression in wildtype and CYP2C18/CYP2C19 transgenic mice. Department of Biomedicine and Veterinary Public Health, Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae vol. 2008: 64.
   
   

Budapest, Hungary, September 30, 2010