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Outstanding UT advisers, researchers, teachers recognized
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By Vicki L. Kroll
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Apr 30, 2007
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UT outstanding
advisers, researchers and teachers were honored recently during the
academic awards banquet.
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Dr.
Ronald Viola,
professor of chemistry, has received a 2007 Outstanding Researcher Award. He
came to UT in 2000. His research interests are in the general areas of the
mechanism of the action of enzymes and in the role of metal ions in
biological systems.
“Professor
Viola is an enzymologist with an international reputation for outstanding
contributions to the field. He played a leadership role in the elucidation
of the structure and/or mechanism of five different enzymes — and
counting,” wrote one nominator. “He is by any standard the world’s foremost
authority on the enzymes of the aspartic acid family of essential amino
acid biosynthesis. The enzymes of essential amino acid biosynthesis are
attractive targets for antimicrobial chemotherapeutic agents. The
development of resistance to known antibiotics by infectious bacterial,
both in hospitals and the general population, is widely recognized as a
worldwide health problem. Understanding microbe-specific metabolic pathways
and designing new inhibitors for the individual enzymes represents a
promising approach for circumventing this problem. It is just this kind of
basic knowledge that flows from the Viola laboratory.”
Viola holds two patents and has received federal funding approaching $5
million for his research during his 26-year career. He has published 88
peer-reviewed papers and been invited to present results of his research on
more than 200 occasions.
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