sustained EB-1A Case: Biomedical Research

U.S. Department of Homelar~d Security 
20 Mass. Ave.. N.W . Rm. A3042 
Washington. DC 20529 
U. S. Citizenship 
and Immigration 
Services 
*v 
FILE: EAC 03 187 52629 Office: VERMONT SERVICE CENTER Date: 
PETITION: Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker as an Alien of Extraordinary Ability Pursuant to Section 
203(b)(l)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 9 1 153(b)(l)(A) 
ON BEHALF OF PETITIONER: 
INSTRUCTIONS: 
This is the decision of the Administrative Appeals Office in your case. All documents have been returned to 
the office that originally dedded your case. Any further inquiry must be made to that oflice. 
,&. Robert P. Wiemann, Director 
Administrative Appeals Ofice 
'" 
EAC 03 187 52629 
Page 2 
DISCUSSION: The employment-based immigrant visa petition was denied by the Director, Vermont Service 
Center, and is now before the Administrative Appeals Office on appeal. The appeal will be sustained and the 
petition will be approved. 
The petitioner seeks classification as an employment-based immigrant pursuant to section 203(b)(l)(A) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act), 8 U.S.C. 9 1153(b)(l)(A), as an alien of extraordinary ability in 
the sciences. The director determined the petitioner had not established the sustained national or international 
acclaim necessary to qualify for classification as an alien of extraordinary ability. 
Section 203(b) ofthe Act states, in pertinent part, that: 
(1) Priority Workers. -- Visas shall first be made available . . . to qualified immigrants who are aliens 
described in any of the following subparagraphs (A) through (C): 
(A) Aliens with Extraordinary Ability. -- An alien is described in this subparagraph if -- 
(i) the alien has extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or 
athletics which has been demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim 
and whose achievements have been recognized in the field through extensive 
documentation, 
(ii) the alien seeks to enter the United States to continue work in the area of 
extraordinary ability, and 
(iii) the alien's entry to the United States will substantially benefit prospectively the 
United States. 
As used in this section, the term "extraordinary ability" means a level of expertise indicating that the 
individual is one of that small percentage who have risen to the very top of the field of endeavor. 8 C.F.R. 
5 204.5(h)(2). The specific requirements for supporting documents to establish that an alien has sustained 
national or international acclaim and recognition in his or her field of expertise are set forth in the I-egulation 
at 8 C.F.R. 5 204.5(h)(3). The relevant criteria will be addressed below. It should be reiterated, however, that 
the petitioner must show that she has earned sustained national or international acclaim at the very top level. 
This petition, filed on June 9, 2003, seeks to classify the petitioner as an alien with extraordinary ability as a 
biomedical researcher. At the time of filing, the petitioner was employed as a Visiting Postdoctoral Research 
Fellow in the Endocrinology and Reproduction Research Branch (ERRB), National Institute of Child Health 
and Human Development (NICHHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH). 
The regulation at 8 C.F.R. tj 204.5(h)(3) indicates that an alien can establish sustained national or 
international acclaim through evidence of a one-time achievement (that is, a major, international recognized 
award). Barring the alien's receipt of such an award, the regulation outlines ten criteria, at least three of which 
must be satisfied for an alien to establish the sustained acclaim necessary to qualify as an alien of 
extraordinary ability. We find that the petitioner's evidence satisfies the following three criteria. 
EAC 03 187 52629 
Page 3 
Evidence of the alien's participation, either individually or on a panel, as a judge of the work of 
others in the same or an alliedjeld of speciJication for which classiJication is sought. 
The petitioner submitted evidence showing that she serves on the Editorial Boards of Clinical Pharmacology 
and Experimental Therapeutics of Asia and the Chinese Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 
We find that the evidence presented is adequate to satisfy this criterion. 
Evidence of the alien's originul scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-relattpd 
contributions of major significance in thejeld. 
The petitioner provided several witness letters in support of the petition. We cite representative examples 
here. 
Dr. Kevin Catt, Chief, ERRB, NICHHD, NIH, states: 
[The petitioner] has been studying the signal transduction mechanisms involved in the enhancement of 
synaptic transmission and plasticity. Studies of these neural processes are essential to our 
understanding of the complex processes of learning and memory. [The petitioner] is responsible for 
several projects regarding the functional role of neurogranin, a brain-specific protein, in learning and 
memory, and its underlying signaling mechanisms. Using a line of genetically modified mice in which 
the neurogranin gene has been deleted, [the petitioner] has demonstrated a critical role of neurogranin in 
signal transduction mediated by protein kinase C and A, two enzymes that are known to be involved in 
learning and memory. She also found that the participation of N-methyl-D-aspartate-mediated 
phosphorylation and oxidation of neurogranin underlies . . . neuronal signaling in the hippocampus. An 
understanding of these biochemical processes is critical for developing new therapeutic approaches for 
the improvement of memory and treatments for patients with Alzheimer's disease. 
Dr. Pierre-Marie Lledo, Head of CNRS Research Unit, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France, states: 
[The petitioner] has made a significant contribution in the area by investigating molecular mechanisms 
involved in learning and memory and by testing many kinds of medicines in various animal models 
with cognitive defects. Specifically, she carried out extensive studies to investigate roles of 
Neurogranin, a substrate for postsynaptic protein kinase C (PKC), in cognitive function. Her work has 
demonstrated that neurogranin is involved in the modulation of postsynaptic PKC- and PKA-mediated 
signaling pathways and derangement of those signaling pathways in specific brain areas causes deficits 
in synaptic plasticity and learning and memory. 
Dr. Luca Ferraro, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, University of Ferrara, Italy, states: 
I am particularly interested in [the petitioner's] work on functional roles of protein kinases in signal 
transduction. She demonstrated the attenuation of protein kinase C and A signal transduction in 
neurogranin knockout mouse, and found that N-methyl-D-aspartate-mediated phosphorylation and 
EAC 03 187 52629 
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oxidation of neurogranin underlie calcium- and calicium/calmodulin-regulated neuronal signalings in 
the hippocampus. An understanding of these is critical for developing new therapeutic approaches . . . . 
ief Scientific Officer and President of Research, Adolor Corporation, states: 
[The petitioner] has made significant progress . . . investigating the signal transduction me~h~anisms 
involved in the enhancement of synaptic transmission and plasticity. Furthermore, [the petitioner] has 
developed a radial-arm maze test to evaluate learning and memory performance in animals, which has 
now been generally used for drug research and development. 
- Associate Professor, Division of Neuropharmacology, Neurotec Department, Karolinska 
Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, states: 
[The petitioner] has made a number of original and creative contributions of major significance to the 
field. I would like to highlight the most substantial one. . . . [The petitioner] demonstrated a critical 
role of neurogranin in signal transduction mediated by protein kinase C and protein kinase '4, two 
enzymes known to be involved in learning and memory. . . . [The petitioner] also found that the 
phosphorylation and oxidation of neurogranin during synaptic transmission are important mechanisms 
involved in neuronal signaling in the hippocampus. 
ssociate Director, Department of Central Nervous System Clinical Research, Eisai Medical 
[The petitioner's] current work is focused on the involvement of neurogranin in synaptic transmission. 
She has demonstrated that protein kinase C and A signal transduction pathways are attenuated in 
neurogranin knockout mice. This work may lead to the discovery of a novel therapy for Alzheimer's 
Disease, since it has been reported that neurogranin level was reduced in some brain areas in patients 
with Alzheimer's Disease. This work has recently been published in the Journal of Biological 
Chemistly and has been widely cited by the peers in the area. 
Publication, by itself, is not a strong indication of impact, because the act of publishing an article does not 
compel others to read it or absorb its influence. Yet publication can nevertheless provide a very persuasive 
and credible avenue for establishing outside reaction to the petitioner's work. If a given article in a 
prestigious journal (such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.) attracts the 
attention of other researchers, those researchers will cite the source article in their own published work, in 
much the same way that the petitioner herself has cited dozens of sources in her own articles. Numerous 
independent citations would provide firm evidence that other researchers have been influenced by the 
petitioner's work and are familiar with it. On appeal, the petitioner submitted citation indices showing an 
aggregate total of 144 cites to the petitioner's work. This large number of citations bolsters the witnesses' 
claims that the petitioner's findings are of major significance in the neuroscience field. 
The record includes additional letters of support from researchers at NIH, the Chinese Academy of Medical 
Sciences, the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and the University of California, San Diego. In this 
case, the record adequately demonstrates that the petitioner's contributions are important not only to the 
EAC 03 187 52629 
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research institutions where she has worked, but throughout the greater field. Scientific experts from around 
the world have acknowledged the value of the petitioner's work and its major significance to the scientific 
community. Therefore, we find that the petitioner's evidence satisfies this criterion. 
Evidence of the alien's authorship of scholarly articles in thejelu', in professional or major trade 
publications or other major media. 
The petitioner submitted evidence of her authorship of several articles appearing in publications such as 
Journal of Neurochemistry, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Federation of American Societies for 
Experimental Biology Journal, the Chinese Medical Journal, Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, and the Chinese 
Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 
As noted previously, the petitioner submitted evidence showing that her published articles are witlely cited. 
When judging the influence and impact that the petitioner's published work has had, the very act of 
publication is not as reliable a gauge as is the citation history of the published works. Publication alone may 
serve as evidence of originality, but it is difficult to conclude that a published article is important or 
influential if there is little evidence that other researchers have relied upon the petitioner's findings. In this 
case, however, the unusually large number of cites to the petitioner's articles demonstrates widespread 
interest in, and reliance on, her work. We find that the petitioner's evidence is adequate to siitisfy this 
criterion. 
Accordingly, the petitioner has satisfied three of the regulatory criteria required for classification as an alien 
of extraordinary ability. Pursuant to the statute and regulations as they are currently constituted, the petitioner 
qualifies for the classification sought. 
In review, while not all of the evidence presented in this matter carries the weight imputed to it by counsel, 
the totality of the evidence establishes an overall pattern of sustained national and international acclaim and 
extraordinary ability in the neuroscience field. The petitioner has also established that she seeks to continue 
working in the same field in the United States and that her entry into the United States will substantially 
benefit prospectively the United States. Therefore, the petitioner has overcome the stated grounds for denial 
and thereby established eligibility for the benefits sought under section 203 of the Act. 
The burden of proof in visa petition proceedings remains entirely with the petitioner. Section 291 of the Act, 
8 U.S.C. 5 1361. The petitioner has sustained that burden. Accordingly, the decision of the director denying 
the petition will be withdrawn and the petition will be approved. 
ORDER: The appeal is sustained and the petition is approved.