RE: Applicant’s Name
To Whom It May Concern:
It gives me great pleasure to write this letter in support of Dr. XXX’s
research contributions to the field of ____________________.
I am Chair of Molecular Biology at the School of Biological Sciences at the
University of ____________________________. I have spent _______ years in
academic research, publishing approximately _________scientific publications
in peer-reviewed, internationally distributed journals, which have been
cited ________ times. My specific area of expertise is ____________________
__________. My studies focus on ___________________________________________
____. From _____________ to ____________, I was employed with _____________
____________________ as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded
biomedical research scientist and a Professor in the Department of _________
_____________. During this time, I also held the position of Adjunct
Professor in the Department of _______________ at the University of ________
_________________.
Dr. XXX worked in my laboratory at _____________________ from ____________
to _______________________. Dr. XXX was a Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow and
recipient of a prestigious _______________________________ Fellowship. Dr.
XXX’s research focused on the role of integrins and the extracellular
matrix (ECM) in regulating microglial cell function and behaviour.
Microglia are the primary immune cell within the brain, and a greater
understanding of the mechanisms regulating microglial activation and
suppression will be of great benefit in designing therapies to treat
neuroinflammatory diseases of the brain, such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
This research program resulted in the publication of three important
scientific research papers in peer-reviewed journals. These publications
detailed the groundbreaking and original findings made by Dr. XXX which
focused on the fundamentally important subject of integrins and the
extracellular matrix (ECM) and how the interactions between these elements
influence microglial cells in inflammatory demyelinating states.
Specifically, Dr. XXX’s documented the critical roles of specific integrins
and their ECM substrates in microglial adhesiveness and activation and he
also defined the regulation of these interactions by different classes of
cytokines involved in positive or negative regulation of inflammation in the
brain.
Dr. XXX investigated the adhesive mechanisms regulating microglial adhesion
to astrocytes and to individual ECM proteins, and showed that some proteins
promoted microglial adhesion, while others did not. Furthermore, he also
showed that microglial adhesion to astrocytes, the main glial cell type in
the brain, was weak, but could be dramatically enhanced by pro-inflammatory
cytokines. In short, these findings provided revolutionary information in a
very important, but largely neglected area of microglial cell biology
relevant to our understanding of the roles of these cells in diseases such
as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Additionally, Dr. XXX showed that individual
cytokines and ECM proteins had very specific effects on microglial
activation, and he set up the hypothesis that two of these proteins
fibronectin and vitronectin might be instrumental in initiating and
maintaining neuroinflammation in MS patients, by leaking across the blood
brain barrier early in the disease process, leading to full-scale microglial
activation. This idea was cutting-edge and has motivated other researchers
in the field to pursue this avenue of research. Dr. XXX’s original
findings were published in The Journal of Neuroscience and Journal of
Immunology, two highly ranked professional peer-reviewed journals. In fact,
these journals are known to accept and publish only the highest quality and
innovative research work.
In addition, while in my laboratory, Dr. XXX also initiated a project
examining the expression of specific ECM receptors, called integrins on
cells in the developing brain. This showed that endothelial cells, the
cells lining blood vessels, expressed high levels of b1 integrins, and
strikingly, he also discovered that as blood vessels grow and mature, they
showed a clear switch in the type of b1 integrins they expressed. This is a
vital observation is of eminent importance, as it suggests that growing
blood vessels use a specific type of receptor to promote blood vessel growth
. Dr. XXX’s findings were not only original and innovative, but in fact,
had never before been demonstrated - not just in the brain, but in any
developing organ. This breakthrough work was published in Molecular and
Cellular Neursocience, a leading cutting edge neuroscience journal.
After leaving my laboratory in ____________________, Dr. XXX has continued
his highly successful research career at the University of _________________
_______. During that time, he was awarded the highly competitive and
prestigious __________________________ Award, to allow him to pursue further
studies examining the role of b1 integrins in regulating endothelial
behavior and blood vessel growth.
In ______________, Dr. XXX returned to ____________ to continue his work on
microglial activation and to collaborate with Dr. ________________ on
understanding more about the role of the ECM in regulating blood vessel
tightness in the brain, a structure known as the blood brain barrier. Dr.
XXX has published numerous key papers and in 2006 he was awarded the highly
prestigious “___________________________ Award” from the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society. Also, Dr. XXX was rewarded for his dedication and
outstanding contributions to the field of neuroscience by being promoted to
a faculty appointment within the Department of Molecular and Experimental
Medicine at _______________.
Unquestionably, Dr. XXX is an exceptionally gifted medical scientist. He is
also an extraordinarily talented scientist whose outstanding research
qualities include excellent and diverse technical skills, a clear logical
and innovative intellect, and a strong ability for problem solving, at which
he excels. In short, Dr. XXX’s research ability is nothing short of
outstanding and I can state without question or reservation that he will
continue to produce extraordinary, high-quality, original work in the
neuroimmunology and multiple sclerosis fields.
In summary, Dr. XXX is an extraordinarily gifted and accomplished medical
scientist, who is one of the world’s leading experts in the fields of glial
cell biology and cerebral angiogenesis. I state unreservedly that Dr. XXX
will continue to make significant, groundbreaking and innovative
contributions to not only the scientific community in the United States, but
also to the millions of American suffering from neuroinflammatory diseases
of the brain.
If you have any questions regarding the foregoing, please do not hesitate to
contact me directly. Thank you in advance for your assistance in this
matter.
Sincerely,
