On September 21, 2010, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the winners of the 2010 Lasker Awards: Douglas Coleman, PhD, and Jeffrey M. Friedman, MD, PhD, for basic medical research, Napoleone Ferrara, MD, PhD, for clinical research, and Sir David J. Weatherall, MD, for special achievement.The 3 awards, recognized as the most prestigious medical research awards in the United States today, carry an honorarium of $250 000 for each category and were presented at a ceremony on October 1, 2010, in New York City. Since 1945, the Lasker Awards program has recognized the contributions of scientists, physicians, and public servants internationally who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of human disease.Coleman of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Friedman of Rockefeller University in New York City will receive the 2010 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discovering the hormone leptin, a finding that firmly established the tie between obesity and genetics.Ferrara of South San Francisco-based Genentech will receive the 2010 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for the discovery of vascular endothelial growth factor, which led to his creation of a treatment that restores sight to people blinded by the effects of wet age-related macular degeneration.David J. Weatherall, MD, the Regius Professor of Medicine Emeritus and retired Honorary Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, will receive the 2010 Lasker–Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Research “for five decades of statesmanship in biomedical sciences exemplified by his discoveries concerning genetic diseases of the blood … and for his leadership in improving clinical care throughout the world for children afflicted with thalassemia.”“In granting these awards, the Lasker Foundation honors those who were willing to defy conventional wisdom and blaze new trails of inquiry that led to a startling new treatment for blindness, a solid understanding of the genetic causes underlying obesity and profound advances in clinical care for blood disorders that afflict children throughout the world's poorest countries,” said Joseph L. Goldstein, Chair of the Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury. For photos and bios of the 2010 Lasker winners, see: http://laskerfoundation.presslift.com/2010. On September 21, 2010, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the winners of the 2010 Lasker Awards: Douglas Coleman, PhD, and Jeffrey M. Friedman, MD, PhD, for basic medical research, Napoleone Ferrara, MD, PhD, for clinical research, and Sir David J. Weatherall, MD, for special achievement. The 3 awards, recognized as the most prestigious medical research awards in the United States today, carry an honorarium of $250 000 for each category and were presented at a ceremony on October 1, 2010, in New York City. Since 1945, the Lasker Awards program has recognized the contributions of scientists, physicians, and public servants internationally who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of human disease. Coleman of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Friedman of Rockefeller University in New York City will receive the 2010 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discovering the hormone leptin, a finding that firmly established the tie between obesity and genetics. Ferrara of South San Francisco-based Genentech will receive the 2010 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for the discovery of vascular endothelial growth factor, which led to his creation of a treatment that restores sight to people blinded by the effects of wet age-related macular degeneration. David J. Weatherall, MD, the Regius Professor of Medicine Emeritus and retired Honorary Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, will receive the 2010 Lasker–Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Research “for five decades of statesmanship in biomedical sciences exemplified by his discoveries concerning genetic diseases of the blood … and for his leadership in improving clinical care throughout the world for children afflicted with thalassemia.” “In granting these awards, the Lasker Foundation honors those who were willing to defy conventional wisdom and blaze new trails of inquiry that led to a startling new treatment for blindness, a solid understanding of the genetic causes underlying obesity and profound advances in clinical care for blood disorders that afflict children throughout the world's poorest countries,” said Joseph L. Goldstein, Chair of the Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury. For photos and bios of the 2010 Lasker winners, see: http://laskerfoundation.presslift.com/2010.