Marian Kies Memorial Award for 2001
Dr. Sean Liour
Dr.
Sean Liour
Marian Kies Memorial Award for 2001
Dr. Sean Liour
Dr.
Sean Liour
Dr. Sean Liour was the winner of the 2001 Marian Kies Award. He received his PhD in 1999 in Dr. Robert Yu's laboratory in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA. The main focus of his dissertation research was to investigate the expression and metabolism of gangliosides in normal neuronal development and in neurodegenerative diseases. In doing so, he established an in vitro neuronal differentiation model using a embryonal carcinoma stem cell line to investigate the possible function of gangliosides in neuronal development. Dr. Liour characterized the expression and localization of gangliosides, particularly ganglio-N-tetraose series gangliosides, in this cell culture model. He found that the level of ganglio-N-tetraose series gangliosides expression is highly elevated during rapid neurite outgrowth, and this elevation is mainly controlled at the transcriptional level of several glycosyltransferases. Localization study of these ganglio-N-tetraose series gangliosides showed that they are abundant on the fliopodia as well as lamellipodia of growth cones during the early stage of neurite outgrowth. These data suggested that gangliosides may have a functional role in neurite outgrowth, especially axonal guidance. Dr. Liour also examined the abnormal ganglioside expression and metabolism associated with several severe neurological disorders, including mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS). Dr. Liour currently is developing a cell therapy strategy for correcting the neurological disorders in these MPS. Dr. Liour currently is a post-doctoral research associate at the Medical College of Georgia.