Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards Announced Today

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Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 16 Sep 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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The Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards, now in their 62nd year, are the USA's premier awards for exceptional work in basic and clinical medical research, and outstanding public service in support of medical research - today the 2007 awards have been announced.

-- The Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research has been given to Ralph M. Steinman, Rockefeller University, New York. Steinman discovered dentritic cells, immune cells that set off other components of the immune system to stop microbial invaders. His research have opened up new therapeutic ways for combating pathogens and cancer.

-- The Clinical Medical Research Award has gone to Alain Carpentier, Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou, Paris, France and Albert Starr, the Providence Health System, Portland, USA. They developed prosthetic mitral and aortic valves, which have extended and improved the lives of millions of heart disease patients, providing treatment where non was possible before.

-- The Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service has been awarded to Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for engineering two major US governmental programs, one aimed at biodefense and the other at AIDS.

During the last two decades, 72 Lasker Award receivers have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. A ceremony will be help on September 218th at the Pierre Hotel, New York City, when the Awards will be presented. The keynote speaker will be Jeffrey Sachs, Ph.D., Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, who received the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research as well as the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985 (with Dr. Michael Brown), and is Chair of the international jury of scientists that selects Lasker Awards recipients, said:

"More often than not, success in science depends on courage, determination, confidence, and the willingness to ignore conventional wisdom-especially when these traits accompany strong logic. This year's Lasker Awards honor investigators whose triumphs relied on these characteristics.

"The discovery of dendritic cells by Ralph Steinman broke open an entire field. While most immunologists were studying events that occur after germs trigger an immune response, he focused on the initial steps in that process and came up with an unconventional idea-that the strange, rare dendritic cells he had noticed in spleen preparations stimulated the body's T cells, the key combatants of microbial invaders. Undistracted by popular theories, Steinman doggedly pursued these dendritic cells, establishing that they are our immune system's most potent activators of T cells - something that no one had ever had imagined. Today, many scientists, still led by Steinman, are vigorously exploring an exciting new possibility for dendritic cells - as agents for fighting cancer and AIDS.

"Fifty years ago, heart-valve replacement surgery did not exist. Today, it is the second most common cardiac surgery in the United States and one of the most successful. The invention of mechanical and tissue-based valves by Albert Starr and Alain Carpentier benefits several hundred thousand people each year, who otherwise would suffer from heart failure or premature death."

Dr. Alfred Sommer, 1997 Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research recipient, Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, member of the Selection Committee for the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service in Support of Medical Research and the Health Sciences, said:

"The Mary Woodard Lasker Public Service Award honors Anthony S. Fauci for the extraordinary way in which he marshaled scientific evidence to construct our nation's response to two global crises: HIV/AIDS and bioterrorism. Fauci's passionate, reasoned persuasion led to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the United States' unprecedented commitment of $15 billion over five years to combat AIDS in some of the most heavily affected countries around the world; and to Project Bioshield, our country's principal public health effort to protect the nation from the consequences of bioterrorism. For more than 20 years, U.S. Presidents have sought Fauci's advice in their formulation of national public health policy and its execution-and he has played a unique role in explaining issues of great concern to our nation's citizens."

The Lasker Awards are administered by the Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation. The Awards were first presented in 1946. The late Mary Woodard Lasker contributed enormously to the expansion of the NIH (National Institutes of Health). She was also devoted to securing government funding for medical research aimed at curing devastating diseases. Her commitment to medical research lasted for over half a century.

Each Lasker Award recipient receives $150,000, a citation listing his/her achievements, and an inscribed statuette of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a symbol which represents humanity's victory over disease, disability and death.

Click here to read the full document from the Lasker Foundation (PDF - 16 pages long)

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
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