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June 29, 2023 (Boulder, CO)  -   The Boulder Peptide Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Helena Safavi, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, has received the Young Investigator Award for 2023.  The Young Investigator Award was established in 2016 to support promising peptide scientists early in their career. 

Helena Safavi is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Dr. Safavi studied biology at the University of Cologne (Germany) and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences in Townsville (Australia). She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne (Australia) in 2011 where she was trained in the transcriptomics and proteomics identification of bioactive peptides from animal venoms under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Purcell. Following her PhD studies Dr. Safavi received a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct a joined research project on the large-scale identification and biomedical characterization of peptide toxins and biosynthetic enzymes with Lars Ellgaard at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Toto Olivera at the University of Utah (USA). During this time, she discovered that predatory cone snails use insulin-like toxins to induce dangerously low blood sugar in their fish prey, a discovery that inspired the design of new fast-acting insulin drug leads for the treatment of diabetes.

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Having had broad training in the characterization of bioactive peptides from animal venoms, Dr. Safavi's independent research focuses on the identification of hormone-like toxins as drug leads for the treatment of diabetes and pain. Her group’s recent findings on a novel class of somatostatin-like toxins elucidated an ancient origin of the somatostatin signaling system in animals and has led to the design of several stable and selective somatostatin analogs that provide analgesia in mouse models of acute and chronic pain.

In recognition of her professional and scientific achievements, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Boulder Peptide Society is pleased to present the award to Helena Safavi. Dr. Savafi will present an oral presentation on her research and formally accept the award at the fall Boulder Peptide Symposium Sept 18-21, 2023 in Napa Valley, California.

For more information visit www.boulderpeptide.org