The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) presented Dr. William Landis, retired professor of polymer science, with the 2017 IADR Distinguished Scientist Award in Basic Research in Biological Mineralization at the organization’s 46th annual meeting in San Francisco on March 22.
A world-renowned expert on bone and cartilage growth, Landis joined UA in 2010 as the G. Stafford Whitby Professor of Polymer Science, a position he held until his retirement from UA in December. He is currently serving as the 2016-17 Presidential Chair at the University of California – San Francisco.
Landis has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of biological mineralization in vertebrate, invertebrate and microbial systems. Central to these contributions has been the development of novel electron microscopic and crystallographic techniques and tomographic approaches to visualize mineralization. These technologies allowed Landis to make a number of seminal findings, including the demonstration that hydroxyapatite crystals initially form within the hole zones of collagen fibrils in mineralizing tendons and bone, and that this mineral can in part be nucleated by charged amino acids within the collagen that align with hole zones; the visualization of bone phosphoproteins within mineralizing matrixes; and the demonstration that collagen defects in osteogenesis imperfecta manifest as defects in 3-D mineral structure.
The Basic Research in Biological Mineralization Award is one of 17 IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards. The honor, which consists of a monetary award and a plaque, is designed to encourage and recognize basic research in the field of biological mineralization.
Original Source: UA Digest