Thrombin Receptor Activation Work Wins 2011 Lucian Award

Abstract

For more than 30 years, the Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Disease has recognized the contribution of an investigator or team whose work has had a significant impact on our understanding of cardiovascular disease. Designed to promote innovative research and a collaborative spirit, the 35th Lucian Award was awarded last summer at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. ### The Lucian Award Created in 1965 by a $2 million bequest of Olga Leibovici in honor of her two brothers, Louis and Artur Lucian, the Lucian Award is a $60,000 CDN prize that was first awarded in 1978. The terms of the bequest state that McGill University or its representative will use part of the income from the original $2 million endowment to create the Louis and Artur Lucian Award. “Very specifically, it should be given to the best work recently published related to diseases of the cardiovascular system,” explains Jacques Genest MD, FRCP(C), Professor, Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, and Scientific Director, Center for Innovative Medicine at the Research Institute at the McGill University Health Center, and current Chair of the Lucian Selection committee. “As such, this award has had a huge influence over the course of the last nearly 40 years.” Each year the Lucian Award jury, which is composed of a mix of past Lucien Award recipients and former graduates or current faculty of McGill University, meets to review the approximately 20 to 30 applications received each year. “It was a very tough choice this year. We had truly outstanding applicants,” says Dr Genest. This year's winner is Shaun Coughlin, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco Cardiovascular Research Institute, whose laboratory studies signaling mechanisms involved in cardiovascular biology and disease. Dr Coughlin was awarded the prize for his work on how proteases regulate cellular behaviors and the importance …