The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation bestowed awards Tuesday on seven scientists, among whom helped develop hepatitis C treatment, expand our understanding of how animals respond to oxygen and transform science education.
"The work of this year's honorees epitomizes the power and impact of dedication to rigorous and innovative medical research. These outstanding advances have illuminated fundamental aspects of life, developed a cure for a deadly disease and raised public engagement with science," Claire Pomeroy, president of the Lasker Foundation, said in a press release.
Here are six things to know about the awards and who won this year.
1. The Lasker Awards are among the most prestigious awards given in the biomedical field. Eighty-seven past Lasker recipients have also been awarded the Nobel Prize. This year's recipients will be honored in a ceremony Friday and given $250,000 for each category.
2. The Basic Medical Research Award went to a trio of physician scientists whose independent work, when combined, helped discover the cellular pathway in which animals and humans sense and adapt to oxygen availability. Their research helps explain how animals cope with varying quantities of oxygen and has helped elucidate possible strategies to boost the body's response to oxygen, which could be applied to cardiovascular disease, macular degeneration and anemia treatments.
3. The recipients of the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award include:
- William Kaelin, MD, of Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/ Harvard Medical School
- Peter Ratcliffe, of London-based The Francis Crick Institute/University of Oxford (England)
- Gregg Semenza, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md.
4. The Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award went to three scientists who were able to replicate the hepatitis C virus and use this replica to transform treatment of the disease. Their work led to the development of sofosbuvir, the active ingredient in Sovaldi, the brand-name drug introduced in 2013 that could eradicate hepatitis C without severe side effects, according to The New York Times.
5. The recipients of the Clinical Medical Research Award include:
- Ralf Bartenschlager, PhD, of Heidelberg (Germany) University
- Charles Rice, PhD, Rockefeller University in New York
- Michael Sofia, PhD, formerly of Pharmasset, now of Arbutus Biopharma.
6. The Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science went to Bruce Alberts, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Alberts made fundamental discoveries in DNA replication and protein biochemistry, but is also known for his leadership at national and international scientific associations and dedication to math and science education. He co-authored the textbook Molecular Biology of the Cell, which is widely used and in its sixth edition.
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