The winners of the 2010 Lasker Awards, recognized as the most prestigious medical research awards in the USA, went to Douglas Coleman and Jeffrey M. Friedman for basic medical research, David J. Weatherall for special achievement, and Napoleone Ferrara for clinical research.
In a press release, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation say the awards are to:
..honor four visionaries whose insight and perseverance have led to dramatic advances that will prevent disease and prolong life.
The awards carry an honorarium of $250,000 for each category. They will be presented at the Pierre Hotel, New York City, on October 1st.
Douglas Coleman – of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine:
Jeffrey Friedman – of Rockefeller University in New York City:
They will receive the 2010 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for the discovery of leptin. Leptin is a hormone that regulates appetite and body weight. Their finding firmly established a link between genetics and obesity.
Napoleone Ferrara of South San Francisco-based Genentech:
He will receive the 2010 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for discovering VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor), which is key to the formation of blood vessels. The discovery led to Ferrara’s creation of a treatment that restores sight to patients blinded by wet age-related macular degeneration.
David Weatherall, the Regius Professor of Medicine Emeritus and retired Honorary Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, England:
He will receive the 2010 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Research for fifty years of statesmanship in biomedical sciences, the discoveries concerning genetic diseases of the blood, and for leadership in improving clinical care worldwide, which benefitted children suffering from thalassemia. Maria Freire, President of the Lasker Foundation, said:
The 2010 Lasker Awards dramatically illustrate how the connection between innovative genetic and molecular research fosters bold advances that improve the health of people globally. It’s with great pride that the Lasker Foundation marks its 65th anniversary by recognizing these four Laureates whose courage and dedication exemplify all that our organization seeks to honor. They unlocked medical mysteries that are leading to successful new treatments for some of the world’s most perplexing diseases.
Joseph L. Goldstein, Chair of the Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury, said:
In granting these awards, the Lasker Foundation honors those who were willing to defy conventional wisdom and blaze new trails of inquiry that led to a startling new treatment for blindness, a solid understanding of the genetic causes underlying obesity and profound advances in clinical care for blood disorders that afflict children throughout the world’s poorest countries.
Source: The Lasker Foundation
Written by Christian Nordqvist