Joanna Sigfred Fowler | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1942-08-09)August 9, 1942 (age 82) |
| Alma mater | University of South Florida University of Colorado |
| Awards | Garvan–Olin Medal(1998) E. O. Lawrence Award(1998) National Medal of Science(2008) NAS Award in Chemical Sciences(2009) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | nuclear medicine |
| Institutions | Brookhaven National Laboratory,U.S. Department of Energy,Stony Brook University |
Joanna Sigfred Fowler (born August 9, 1942) is a scientist emeritus at theU.S. Department of Energy'sBrookhaven National Laboratory in New York. She served as professor of psychiatry atMount Sinai School of Medicine[1] and director of Brookhaven's Radiotracer Chemistry, Instrumentation and Biological Imaging Program.[2] Fowler studied the effect of disease, drugs, and aging on the human brain andradiotracers in brain chemistry. She has received many awards for her pioneering work, including theNational Medal of Science.
Fowler was born inMiami, Florida, and attended theUniversity of South Florida, where she received her bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1964. There, she worked in the laboratories of Jack Fernandez. Fowler received herPh.D. in chemistry from theUniversity of Colorado in 1967 and did herpostdoctoral work at theUniversity of East Anglia in England and atBrookhaven National Laboratory. Fowler worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1969 until her retirement in January 2014. She is an emeritus professor in the chemistry department atStony Brook University.[3]
She is married to Frank Fowler, an emeritus professor of organic chemistry at Stony Brook University.
Fowler's research has led to new fundamental knowledge, development of important scientific tools, and has broad impacts in the application ofnuclear medicine to diagnostics and health. She has worked for much of her career developing radiotracers for brain imaging to understand the mechanisms underlying drug addiction. Most recently, she has been engaged in developing methods to understand the relationship betweengenes, brain chemistry, and behavior.[4]
In 1976, Fowler and her colleagues designed and synthesized aradioactively "tagged" form of sugar that is now used widely to studybrain function and also to diagnose and plan treatment forcancer. She also developed anotherradiotracer, as these "tagged" molecules are called, that first showed thatcocaine's distribution in the human brain parallels its effects on behavior.
Fowler played a central role in the development of afluorine-18-labeledglucose molecule (FDG) enabling human brain glucose metabolism to be measured noninvasively. Thispositron-emitting molecule, together withpositron emission tomography (PET) imaging, has become a mainstay for brain-imaging studies inschizophrenia,aging andcancer.
Another of her major accomplishments was the development of the first radiotracers to mapmonoamine oxidase (MAO), a brain enzyme that regulates the levels of other nerve-cell communication chemicals and one of the two major enzymes involved in neurotransmitter regulation in the brain and peripheral organs. Using these radiotracers, she discovered that smokers have reduced levels of MAO in their brains and lungs. This may account for some of the behavioral andepidemiological features of smoking, such as the high rate of smoking in individuals with depression and drug addiction, two conditions involving poornerve-cell communication, and has led to many studies on reduced MAO and smoking.[4]
Fowler holds eight patents for radiolabeling procedures.[1]
Fowler has published approximately 530 papers.[5] The following are a few of the most cited:
Fowler's scientific excellence and achievements have been recognized by prestigious awards, including theNational Medal of Science, awarded in 2009 by President Obama.[6] In 2003, Fowler was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences.
Her numerous other honors include:
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This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBrookhaven Lab's Joanna S. Fowler Named Distinguished Basic Scientist of the Year by the Academy of Molecular Imaging.United States government. This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBrookhaven Researcher Awarded Distinguished Scientist Fellowship.United States government.| International | |
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