Kansas City, Mo. (May 6, 2009) – The M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Foundation has named Sue Jaspersen, Ph.D., Assistant Investigator, the 2009 Hudson Prize recipient. The prize was announced yesterday in a reception at the Stowers Institute.

     The Hudson Prize carries a grant of $75,000 to be used by the recipient to conduct innovative research and accelerate the pace of laboratory experimentation. It was created by the Texas-based Hudson Foundation to recognize and encourage excellence in basic biomedical research at the Stowers Institute.

     “Dr. Jaspersen has launched a promising research program at the Stowers Institute,” said William B. Neaves, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Stowers Institute. “The Hudson Prize will allow her to increase the pace of her research on cell division – research that has implications for cancer, birth defects, and a variety of other diseases.”

     Dr. Jaspersen joined the Stowers Institute in 2005 from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she was a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Winey. Her research focuses on the mechanism and regulation of spindle pole body (SPB) duplication in budding yeast.

     The SPB is the microtubule organizing center of the yeast cell. It plays a critical role in cellular division and is the yeast equivalent of the centrosome found in human cells. Defects in human centrosome duplication can cause genetic instability leading to incomplete sets of chromosomes – a common cause of cancer. Dr. Jaspersen’s research promises to deepen understanding of how chromosomes are accurately segregated among daughter cells.

     Dr. Jaspersen holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco and a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown University. Since joining the Stowers Institute, she received the March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award because of the relevance of her research to the cause and prevention of birth defects.

About the Hudson Foundation
     The Hudson Foundation was established in 1991 to further the Hudsons’ lifelong interest in supporting education, medical research, children’s issues, and the arts. M.R. Hudson was the founder of Hudson Oil Co. and later Fisca Oil Co.

About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
     Housed in a 600,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research conducts basic research on fundamental processes of cellular life. Through its commitment to collaborative research and the use of cutting-edge technology, the Institute seeks more effective means of preventing, treating, and curing disease. Jim and Virginia Stowers endowed the Institute with gifts totaling $2 billion. The endowment resides in a large cash reserve and in substantial ownership of American Century Investments, a privately held mutual fund company that represents exceptional value for the Institute’s future.