TEMTIA Betty Hay Award

The TEMTIA Betty Hay Award was decided upon at the 2007 TEMTIA-III meeting in Krakow, Poland in order to acknowledge and celebrate the pioneering contributions of Professor Elizabeth Hay (1927-2007) to our recognition and understanding of EMT, and indeed to the formation and viability of TEMTIA. Betty is credited with the first publication describing experimental investigation of EMT in which cultured corneal epithelial cells transitioned into migratory fibroblasts 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^1-3, although some observations of what was, in hindsight, natural embryonic EMT had been recorded earlier (e.g. 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^{4, 5}). An article by Kathy Svoboda and Marion Gordon documents the outstanding career of Prof. Elizabeth Hay, a pioneering women scientist, educator, researcher and mentor ⁶, as does the wonderful ‘Memorial Book’ they assembled for the Harvard Community, and a ‘Memorial Minute’ of the Harvard University Faculty of Medicine contributed by Bjorn Olsen, , Elio Raviola, Stephen Sugrue and Kathy Svoboda.

Betty chaired the International Advisory Committee for the first TEMTIA meeting in Cairns, Australia, 2003, and personally wrote and submitted the NIH R-13 grant application that was so instrumental in supporting a strong international presence at that meeting and provided a template for applications to support many subsequent meetings. Consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of TEMTIA’s remit, our R13 support often came from several NIH Institutes (Cancer, Heart Lung and BIood, Ageing, etc). Betty was a vibrant participant in the 2003 TEMTIA-I meeting and also made a memorable appearance at the 2005 TEMTIA-II meeting in Vancouver, Canada, supported by her longstanding colleague Kathy Svoboda and Harvard compatriot Raghu Kalluri. Raghu also provided a nice tribute to Betty when chairing the Inaugural Betty Hay Oration, which is another way that TEMTIA acknowledges her great contributions at each conference.

Betty was a strong advocate for women in science, medical research and particularly EMT, so the TEMTIA membership had no hesitation in creating the Betty Hay Award for Early Career female scientists, to be awarded at each biennial TEMTIA conference commencing from TEMTIA-IV in 2009. The applications for this award are judged by the TEMTIA Committee from documentation submitted ahead of each biennial TEMTIA meeting. Candidates were considered who had initiated their own laboratory, initially in the last 5 years. Prior to the TEMTIA-VI meeting in Alicante in 2013 this was extended to 7 years and suggested by the Committee in conjunction with the 2022 TEMTIA-X meeting in Paris, France, to be extended to 10 years. The award amount was also increased from AU$500 to AU$1,000 in 2013, preceding the TEMTIA-VI meeting in Alicante in 2013. These extensions in eligibility and award reflect evolutions in the time and costs associated with establishing an independent laboratory. The awardee also gives a lecture at the respective TEMTIA conference.

The award and award lecture has been a highlight over the years since and the list of recipients can be seen on the TEMTIA website (https://temtia.org/). They include:

2009: Dr Irina Shapiro - A transcriptome-wide analysis of gene expression and alternative splicing during EMT. TEMTIA IV, Tucson, Arizona, USA 

2011: Dr Sarah M. Dunlap - Obesity promotes EMT in a syngeneic mouse model of claudin-low Breast Cancer. TEMTIA V, Singapore

2013: Dr Sandra Peiró - Regulation of heterochromatin transcription by Snail1/ LOXL2 during epithelial to mesenchymal transition. TEMTIA VI, Alicante, Spain

2015: Dr Claudia Palena - Vaccine targeting Brachyury. TEMTIA VII, Melbourne, Australia

2017: Dr Amy Abel - Epigenetic regulation of epithelial- mesenchymal transition through MAP3K4 regulation of CBP and HDAC6. TEMTIA VIII, Houston, Texas, USA

2019: Dr Kyra Campbell - Distinct components of the extracellular matrix are required in a tissue specific manner to mediate coordinated cell migration and MET. TEMTIA IX, Kumamoto, Japan

2022: Dr Dana Ishay Ronen – BRCA-1 mutation predisposes normal mammary epithelium to cell type transitions. TEMTIA X, Paris, France

References

1.         Hay, E.D. in Epithelial–Mesenchymal Interactions: 18th Hahnemann Symposium. (ed. R.E. R. Fleischmajer & Billingham) 31-35 (Williams and Wilkins, 1968).

2.         Greenburg, G. & Hay, E.D. Epithelia suspended in collagen gels can lose polarity and express characteristics of migrating mesenchymal cells.  95, 333-339 (1982).

3.         Hay, E.D. An overview of epithelio-mesenchymal transformation. Acta Anat 154, 8-20 (1995).

4.         Richardson, M.K. & Keuck, G. The revolutionary developmental biology of Wilhelm His, Sr. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 97, 1131-1160 (2022).

5.         Ramon y Cajal, S. Manual of General Anatomopathology. (Casa Provincial de la Caridad Press, Barcelona; 1890).

6.         Svoboda, K.H. & Gordon, M. A tribute to Elizabeth D. Hay, 1927-2007. Dev Dyn 237, 2605-2606 (2008).