On the heels of an ex-professor winning a Nobel Prize and a researcher nabbing a “genius grant,” Stanford continued its academic prowess, boasting more National Institutes of Health Award winners than any other university this year. Of the 13 Pioneer Awards that were distributed, three went to Stanford researchers.

Shortly after the awards were announced on Sept. 29, Philip Pizzo, dean of the School of Medicine, told the Business News, “Having three pioneer award winners is simply remarkable.”

The three award winners were Thomas Rando, assistant professor of neurology and neurological science; Pehr Harbury, assistant professor of biochemistry; and Karl Deisseroth, assistant professor of bioenginnering, psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

The award seeks out researchers who take on major challenges that have a high probability of failure, but if successful, could cause a sea change in their fields.

Though begun as recently as 2004, Pizzo calls the Pioneer Awards “one of the most prestigious and important recognitions by the NIH.”

Rando, Harbury and Deisseroth commented extensively on their research in a Sept. 29 article in Business News.

Rando called the reward “both an honor and a challenge,” adding that he plans to use the money to help research ways to enhance the potential of stem cells to repair damaged tissue in the elderly.

If fruitful, Rando could help those who suffer from degenerative diseases like muscular dystrophy.

In addition to the Pioneer Award, Harbury also received a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship, sometimes nicknamed the “genius” award. His research plan is to use DNA molecules as blueprints to help synthesize small chemical compounds, which would be extremely useful in drug design.

“We’re trying to put the magic in the magic bullet of drug design,” Harbury said.

His approach to designing drugs would be much quicker and cheaper than the techniques that are currently used, he said.

Deisseroth’s research deals closely with the electric circuitry of the brain. He will be examining those mental illnesses which are the result of circuit glitches rather than chemical imbalances.

Central to his research is his hope to create two new bioengineering tools, one of which could observe the circuitry of the brain at the millisecond time scale at which it operates.

“To really achieve understanding of what’s going wrong with the brain, you really need to match its speed,” Deisseroth said.

Both Rando and Harbury pointed to Stanford as an important factor in their success.

“I attribute a lot to the environment in which I work,” Rando said.

Harbury noted that one of the reasons that he chose Stanford was because The University encourages people to go out on a limb and try hard things, which is the exact type of research that the Pioneer Awards are looking for.

“I feel extremely lucky to be at Stanford,” he said.

The 13 winners were selected from a pool of 840 applicants. Each of the professors will receive $500,000 in annual funding toward their research for five years.