Folkman, Hunter, Massague, Vogelstein and Weinberg Win 2004 Prince of Asturias Awards

Abstract

Judah Folkman, Tony Hunter, Joan Massagué, Bert Vogelstein y Robert A. Weinberg, researchers at the forefront of the fight against cancer, have won the 2004 Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research. The decision was announced by the Jury in Oviedo today.The minutes of the Jury are read from the Hotel de la Reconquista in Oviedo The jury for the award - convened by the Prince of Asturias Foundation - was chaired by Julio Rodríguez Villanueva, and comprised of José Luis Álvarez Margaride, José Baselga, Antonio Fernández-Rañada Menéndez de Luarca, Luis Fernández-Vega Sanz, Santiago Grisolía, Juan José López Ibor, Emilio Lora Tamayo, María del Carmen Maroto Vela, Enrique Moreno, Rafael Nájera Morrondo, César Nombela Cano, Fernando Ortiz Maslloréns, Miguel Ángel Pesquera, Rafael Puyol, Rafael Sariego García, Guillermo Suárez Fernández and José Antonio Martínez-Álvarez (secretary).Dr. Judah Folkman was born in Cleveland (USA) in 1933 and graduated in Medicine at Harvard University in 1957. He now heads the Department of Surgical Research at Boston's Children's Hospital and is Professor of Cellular Biology at Harvard Medical School. Angiogenesis, for which he devised a theory in the sixties, and of which he is considered the father figure, is now one of the major research lines in the fight against cancer. It is a process whereby tumours generate their own vascular system, allowing them to receive nutrients and to develop. Doctor Folkman discovered that tumour angiogenesis can be kept at bay for a considerable length of time, and even rendered dormant indefinitely, when tumours produce high levels of certain protein factors, yet regain their angiogenetic capacity and ability to become invasive when these levels dwindle. This has triggered new lines of oncological research into the synthesis of angiogenesis inhibitors, some of which - endostatin and angiostatin, for example - were discovered by Folkman himself. Doctor Folkman is a member of the American National Academy of Science, and holds honoris causa doctorates from fifteen universities.Tony Hunter was born in Kent (United Kingdom) in 1943. He earned his doctorate from Cambridge University (1969), and at present pursues his research interests at the laboratory for molecular and cellular biology at the Salk Institute, in La Jolla, California. Considered to be one of the world's top experts in the study of cell growth-regulating genes, in 1979 Doctor Hunter discovered the phosphorylation of tyrosine kinase, which led the way towards research into these enzymes and the role they play in the transduction, development and growth of cancer-causing cells. Knowledge of tyrosine kinase has been a determining factor in the development of a new generation of drugs to treat oncological conditions. Doctor Hunter is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Society of London. He was awarded the Medal of Honour of the American Cancer Society last February.Joan Massagué Solé was born in Barcelona in 1953. He holds a doctorate in Pharmacy (Biochemistry) from the University of Barcelona (1978). He joined Brown University, Rhode Island, in1982, where he discovered the structure of the insulin receptor. He lectured as Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts. In 1989, he joined New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to head their Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, where he is director of the Programme for Cancer Biology and Genetics. He also researches at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work has mainly targeted the study of the various glycoproteins that trigger cell transformation. In 1993 he published his studies on the working mechanisms of two of the three factors that check the uncontrolled multiplication of cancer-producing cells: the p27 peptide and the tumour growth factor beta. The identification of TGB É¿, one of the most powerful inhibitors of cell proliferation, figures outstandingly amongst his work. His team has defined FoxG1 and PI3K-AKT, new targets for future drugs. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, the American Academy of Arts ans Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization.Bert Vogelstein was born in Baltimore (USA) in 1949. He is Professor at the Faculty of Medicine Johns Hopkins University and research fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Centre. As a result of his work to identify and characterise gene changes leading to colon cancer, he is now considered one of the benchmark figures in oncological research. He discovered the APC gene - which controls cell growth in the colon - and has also made major contributions to our understanding of the role of the p53 gene in the tumour-producing process, and of other p53-linked genes such as PUMA and PRL-3. The Medal of Honour of the American Cancer Society (1992), the Pezcoller Foundation Award (1993), the Clowes Memorial, awarded by the American Association of Cancer Research and the acknowledgements of a number of universities around the world figure amongst Bert Vogelstein's distinctions. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Robert A. Weinberg was born in Pittsburg (USA) en 1942. He is a founder member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his doctorate in 1969. He is considered to be one of the pioneers in the understanding of the genetics of cancer, and is a specialist in the study of human oncogenes and in tumour suppressor genes. He isolated the first carcinogenic gene, the Ras oncogene, and the first tumour suppressor gene, rb, the retinoblastoma gene. His most recent research is focused on new development models, breast cancer and cancer telomerase. The U.S. National Medal for Science (1997) figures amongst his distinctions; he is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science.This candidature was proposed by Cesar Nombela, a member of the Jury.The Prince of Asturias Foundation's statues establish that the aim of the Awards is to acknowledge and extol 'scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanistic work carried out by individuals, groups or institutions worldwide'. Consonant with this spirit, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 'will be bestowed upon the individual, working group or institution whose discoveries or research represent a significant contribution to the progress of humanity in the fields of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, Earth and Space Science, as well as their related technical aspects and technologies.'This year a total of 45 candidatures from Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Rumania, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela and Spain ran for the award.This is the second of the eight Prince of Asturias Awards to be bestowed in what is their twenty-fourth edition. Claudio Magris, the Italian writer, has recently been given the Award for Letters. In the upcoming weeks, Awards in the following categories will be announced: Social Sciences, Communication and Humanities, International Co-operation, and the Arts, with the Sports and Concord awards being announced in September.Each of the Prince of Asturias Awards, which date back to 1981, is endowed with 50,000 Euros, a commissioned sculpture donated by Joan Miró, a diploma and an insignia. The awards will be presented in the autumn in Oviedo at a grand ceremony chaired by H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias.