Carrington Honored

PULLMAN, Wash. — James Carrington, professor and fellow in the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University, received the prestigious Ruth Allen Award at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society in New Orleans, August 12-16.

Carrington was honored for outstanding contributions to plant pathology, specifically for several major discoveries that have provided a general model for the events involved in the replication, movement and pathogenesis of viruses in plants.

In the past few years, Carrington’s research has focused on host functions that contribute to virus susceptibility or non-susceptibility. He recently found that when some viruses attack plants, the viruses can turn off the plant’s defense mechanism with a protein known as HC-Pro. This discovery leads scientists to believe that systemic virus infections result only if the virus can successfully suppress or evade the host’s defenses.

The award was established in 1965. It is made annually for outstanding contributions to the science of plant pathology.

WSU’s Institute of Biochemistry was established in 1980 primarily to pursue fundamental research in molecular biology and biochemistry of plants.

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