b'2021 CLASSBear, who studies epilepsys impact on cognition, says hes hopeful the Boettcher award will help him put together stronger applications OF BOETTCHERfor National Institute of Health funding. Since 2010, Boettcher researchers have brought in more than $100 INVESTIGATORS million in independent research funding from federal, state, and private sources. In addition, investigators have published more than 100 articles and registered eight applications for patents. In discussing his research, Bear speaks with passion as both a clinician Colorado State Universityand neuroscience researcher. With his investigator award, Bear hopes to advance the effectiveness of epilepsy surgery using empirical and machine-learning approaches to improve success rates while avoidingJulie Moreno, Ph.D. surgeries in others unlikely to see benefit. Assistant Professor Under the best of circumstances, Bear says, 20 percent of patients will Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology continue having seizures after surgery. In many cases, the failure rate Protein misfolding neurodegenerativeof surgery can be as high as 50 percent. Additionally, the surgeries diseases and agingcan also cause other deficits in children, which can impact cognition, memory, speech, or have other effects. University of Colorado Because of this, there is a critical need to develop methods for better Anschutz Medical Campus identifying the brain zones that will result in freedom from seizures, he said. J So many families would rather take the risk of unsuccessful surgeryoshua Bear, M.D., M.A.Assistant Professor than continue to have their child suffer from seizures, Bear said. Department of Pediatrics Im inspired by that. We have the potential to give kids with epilepsy Division of Neurology better lives. Studying cortical networks in medication-refractory epilepsy Giving children better lives is also part of Sarah Clark, Ph.D.s research. A 2021 Boettcher Investigator, Clark says that among young children Sarah Clark, Ph.D.and the elderly, pneumonia has long been the leading infectious Assistant Professor cause of death.Department of Otolaryngology At her lab on the Anschutz campus, Clark describes her lifes work as Host-pathogen interactions in the airway focusing on the discoveries that come with studying good and bad bacteria in our immune systems.Craig Forester, M.D., Ph.D.Her research seeks novel approaches to enhance protective host Assistant Professorimmunity by studying how health-associated strains of bacteria can Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and BMT protect the respiratory tract from one of the most prevalent pathogens Determinants of nascent genethat causes pneumonia.expression in hematopoiesis Im trying to take clinical observations from people studying whats happening to a kid, model it in a lab, and come up with a mechanism, Mia J. Smith, D.V.M., Ph.D. Clark said. Its critical as a new investigator to branch off in a new Assistant Professor of Pediatrics direction and propose something thats really different.B-cells in the pathogenesis of T1D Clark applied for a Webb-Waring award in a previous year but was declined. She took the feedback she received and applied it to this University of Colorado Boulder years proposal.I tried for the Boettcher award because of my research emphasis and Nausica Arnoult, Ph.D.my stage of career development, said Clark, an assistant professor in Assistant Professor of Molecular,the department of otolaryngology (head and neck surgery) at Anschutz. Cellular and Developmental BiologyI felt like the (Webb-Waring Award) is trying to fund more innovative DNA repair and genome stability ideas with a lot of potential. 24 BIOSCIENCECOLORADO 2021-2022'