PASADENA— Biologists have identified a gene that determines whether a given cell in a human or animal embryo will become a neuron rather than some other kind of cell.

PASADENA—Paul Sternberg, professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, has been awarded a one year, $100,000 grant from the Seaver Institute in support of his work in molecular genetics.

Sternberg's research identifies and studies genes necessary for normal development. His research has contributed to the understanding of the universal pathway of signaling between animal cells. He hopes this current work will lead him to a better knowledge of basic life processes and the formation of cancer and its progression.

Scientists have developed a simple diagnostic test for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), a group of invariably fatal brain diseases that include "Mad Cow" disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and kuru in humans. New Diagnostic Test Announced for Group of Brain Diseases September 1996 96

Neuroscientists have new results on how our brains and eyes work together in getting our bodies from point A to point B without mishap. The research appears in today's issue of the journal Science. New Research Shows How the Eyes Help the Body Navigate September 1996 96

PASADENA—Caltech biologist Elliot Meyerowitz and Enrico Coen of the John Innes Institute in England shared the 1996 "Science pour l'Art" Science Prize of LVMH—Moët Hennessy/Louis Vuitton at a ceremony in Paris, France, on July 9. As part of the prize, Meyerowitz and Coen shared an award of 100,000 French francs, or about 19,000 U.S.

PASADENA—Erin Schuman, an assistant professor of biology at Caltech, has been named a recipient of a 1996 Beckman Young Investigators Award.

This award, given by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, will provide $200,000 over two years to support Schuman's research into the "development of an adenovirus vector to deliver recombinant nitric oxide synthase into living neurons."

PASADENA—Norman Davidson, the Norman Chandler Professor of Chemical Biology, Emeritus, at Caltech, will receive the 1996 National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton at a White House ceremony later this summer.

In a statement released today, the White House announced the names of this year's eight winners of the National Medal of Science, which is awarded periodically in special recognition of outstanding scientific contributions. Davidson is the twentieth member of the Caltech faculty to be honored with this award.

PASADENA—The Medical Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute announced today that Edward B. Lewis, Caltech's Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology, Emeritus, will share the 1995 Nobel Prize in medicine with two other scientists for "the genetic control of early embryonic development." This is the 23rd Nobel Prize won by a Caltech faculty member or a Caltech alumnus.

PASADENA—Erin Schuman, assistant professor of biology at Caltech, has been named a 1995 Pew Scholar by the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. As a Pew Scholar, Schuman will receive $200,000 in support of her research over the next four years.

Alexander Grunewald, a postdoctoral scholar in neuroscience at Caltech, has received a three-year, $105,000 grant from the McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience.