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Hao Wu, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University, has been named one of a select group of Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences for the year 2000. The prestigious award, which is given to only 20 outstanding young scientists each year, provides $240,000 to support her research for the next four years.

Dr. Wu, who lives in Scarsdale, NY, has a special interest in the TNF receptor super-family. (Receptors are the proteins on a cell's surface by which it responds to the world.) This family of receptors is important in the genesis of many diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, various immune diseases, and cancer.

Dr. Wu came to America from China in 1988 and received her Ph.D. in structural biology from Purdue University in 1992. While at Purdue, she had a Howard Hughes pre-doctoral fellowship. She then worked at Columbia University, where she had an Aaron Diamond postdoctoral fellowship. She has been at Weill Cornell Medical College since 1997.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, a national philanthropy based in Philadelphia, has chosen its biomedical Scholars since 1985. Rebecca W. Rimel, president of the Trusts, says, "These young scientists are the lifeblood of the research community."