Gwen Childs, Ph.D., Earns Highest Award in Histochemistry
| Gwen Childs, Ph.D., of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), is the 2019 recipient of the highest award offered by the national Histochemical Society.
Childs is a professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences in the UAMS College of Medicine. She received the George Gomori, M.D., Ph.D., Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of histochemistry and cytochemistry. It is presented every four years.
She received the award on April 7 at the Histochemical Society Symposium at the interdisciplinary Experimental Biology 2019 meeting in Orlando, Florida. The following morning, she delivered a talk on the history of immunocytochemistry through modern discoveries titled, “Immunocytochemistry: Challenging Paradigms to Illuminate New Discoveries in the Pituitary.”
In histochemistry, scientists use stains, indicators and microscopes to identify and study chemicals in biological tissue.
Childs began her research in the immunohistochemistry field as a graduate student in the early 1970s and continued this focus through the 1990s. Her laboratory originally developed novel histochemical and immunohistochemical approaches to identify and unravel the mystery of multipotential pituitary cells, challenging paradigms of the day. Current studies focus on how the metabolome communicates with pituitary cells.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###