Dr. Gundry receives top proteomics award

Rebekah Gundry, PhD, chair of the UNMC Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, received the 2023 Clinical and Translational Proteomics Award from the Human Proteome Organization recently.

The award recognizes her significant impact in the field of clinical and translational proteomics.

She received the award following a presentation of her lecture titled “Clinical and Translational Proteomics: Prioritize the Patient” at the HUPO World Congress held in September in Busan, South Korea. 

This is not the first time Dr. Gundry has been recognized for her innovative technologies and research accomplishments – she was named the UNeMed 2023 Emerging Inventor of the Year in November.

Dr. Gundry, the Stokes-Shackleford Professor, also was appointed director of the UNMC Center for Heart and Vascular Research in 2022.

Her work focuses on developing and applying technologies to understand the molecular landscape of the human heart, leading to new insights into heart failure and the identification of new therapeutic targets. 

The HUPO award selection committee recognized Dr. Gundry for her technological developments, specifically the methodologies and bioinformatic tools that advance the analysis of glycoproteins and glycan structures in clinical samples. Along with her work with the CellSurfer platform, a new automated cell surface glycoproteomics profiling platform, she is recognized for her development of accompanying novel bioinformatic tools including SurfaceGene, CIRFESS and Veneer.

These bioinformatic tools are freely available as easy-to-use web applications, which promote adoption by other investigators, especially those without previous expertise in glycoproteomics and glycomics.

Dr. Gundry credits the UNeMed and UNeTech teams for helping her laboratory move these technological developments forward toward commercialization. She also thanked the Nebraska Cardiovascular Biobank and Registry, directed by Dan Anderson, MD, PhD, which is a research core within the UNMC Center for Heart and Vascular Research, for enabling the streamlined collection and distribution of human heart specimens that are essential for the work highlighted by the HUPO award selection committee.