2005 Lasker Awards Honor Groundbreaking Biomedical Research, Public Service

Abstract

PIONEERING STEM CELL RESEARCHers, innovative geneticists, and a tireless advocate of breast cancer research and awareness are being honored this week as recipients as the 2005 Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards. Now celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Lasker Awards are the United States’ most distinguished honor for contributions to basic and clinical medical research, as well as public service on behalf of the medical research enterprise. The Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is shared by Ernest McCulloch, MD, and James Till, PhD, of the Ontario Cancer Institute, in Toronto, Canada, for experiments that first identified a blood-forming stem cell and set the stage for current research on adult and embryonic stem cells. The Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research is awarded to Sir Edwin Southern, FRS, of the University of Oxford, and Sir Alec Jeffreys, FRS, of the University of Leicester, both in the United Kingdom, for development of two genetic technologies, Southern hybridization and DNA fingerprinting, that together revolutionized human genetics and forensic diagnostics. The Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service honors Nancy Brinker, founder and president of the Dallas, Tex.–based Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, for creating one of the world’s most notable foundations devoted to curing breast cancer and dramatically increasing public awareness about this disease. Joseph Goldstein, MD, a past Lasker winner who serves as chairman of the international jury that selects recipients of the Lasker Awards for research, explained that thisyear’sBasic andClinicalResearchawardsrecognizedresearchers whose insights had far-reaching effects. “Occasionally scientists take special note of an observation or interpret it in a novel way,” he said. “These ‘eureka moments’ can profoundly alter the course of scientific progress. This year’s Lasker Awards honor three such achievements.” Daniel Koshland, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and chairman of the selection committee for the Lasker Award for Public Service, explained why Nancy Brinker was chosen. “Brinker has devoted her life to fulfilling a pledge to her dying sister to raise public awareness about breast cancer, promote its early diagnosis and effective treatment, and increase medical research to achieve its eventual eradication.” The awards will be presented at a luncheon ceremony on September 23 in New York City.