University of Chicago researcher Elizabeth McNally receives Culpeper Foundation award

July 27, 1998

Elizabeth M. McNally, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the section of cardiology at the University of Chicago's department of medicine, was named one of four recipients of the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Scholarships in Medical Science for 1998. Through this award, Dr. McNally will receive $100,000 a year for up to three years to fund her research.

"The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Scholarships in Medical Science are designed to support the career development of young academic physicians. The awards are among the most generous of their kind," said Francis J. McNamara, Jr., president of the Culpeper Foundation. "The Foundation's objective with this scholarship program is to provide significant support to young physicians of high potential achievement, like Dr. McNally, who are committed to careers in academic medicine," added McNamara. The four investigators were selected from a competitive field of applicants nominated by their respective medical schools.

As a Charles E. Culpeper Medical Scholar, Dr. McNally will study the inherited nature of human disease. Her research identifies defective genes that lead to congestive heart failure and muscle weakness. The proteins encoded by these genes are important for extracellular matrix, membrane, and cytoskeletal interactions in skeletal and cardiac muscle.

The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Scholarships in Medical Science program was established in 1987 as an extension of the Foundation's ongoing commitment to medical science, which totaled more that $39 million since 1970. Since the Scholarship program began, 33 investigators representing medical schools from all parts of the United States have received Medical Science Scholarship awards from the Culpeper Foundation.

The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation is a private, non-profit charitable foundation that was established under the will of the late Charles E. Culpeper. Culpeper was one of the pioneers in the bottling and marketing of Coca-Cola. In recent years, the Foundation has dispensed more than $7 million a year to activities in health, education, the arts and culture, and the administration of justice.

In addition to Dr. McNally, the scholarships recipients are Jonathan M. Graff, MD, PhD, at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas; Steffan N. Ho, MD, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego; and Steven Lee McIntire, MD, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco.