2016 Lucian Award

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Fifty years after it was established through a generous bequest to McGill University,1 the 2016 Louis and Artur Lucian Award for research in circulatory disease has been presented to Brian Kobilka, MD, of Stanford University. Kobilka is being honored for his enormous contributions to the understanding of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs), the versatile family of receptors that mediate the majority of cellular responses to hormones, neurotransmitters, and some types of sensory input. “Kobilka revealed the molecular configuration of the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) through the use of crystallography, then doggedly pursued research in this area until he discovered how the receptor functions. He has now expanded his work to a whole range of GPCRs. Many of the other candidates for the 2016 Lucian award were extremely productive and highly cited, but his science was head and shoulders above the others. With a very long array of papers in high-impact and difficult-to-publish-in journals— Cell , Science , Nature , and PNAS —Kobilka’s contributions have been recognized by his peers as cutting-edge work that advances the field significantly, not as small incremental discoveries,” says James Martin, MD, chair of the McGill University Department of Medicine and new chair of the Lucian award committee. During his internship at Barnes Hospital, Kobilka often treated unstable patients with medications acting on GPCRs, including the adrenergic and muscarinic receptors regulating heart rate and blood pressure and opioid receptors controlling pain. His interest in intensive care medicine led Kobilka to apply for cardiology fellowships, and he was drawn to the program at Duke University because it encouraged fellows to pursue basic research. Kobilka joined the laboratory of Robert Lefkowitz, MD, where the β2AR had been identified and Jeff Benovic, a graduate student, had recently succeeded in purifying enough β2AR …