The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015 that the Lasker Awards will be given to three experts, who were able to discover breakthroughs in the field of cancer and genetics.
The awarding ceremony will be held on Sept. 18, 2015 in Manhattan and the awardees of the three-category award-giving body will receive $250,000. Majority of scientists who have received a Lasker Award in the past were said to be recipients of Nobel Prizes as well. According to the foundation, the past 30 years have been a witness to this achievement of 44 scientists.
The first category, which is the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, will be awarded to James P. Allison from the University of Texas for inventing a cancer treatment called "checkpoint inhibitors." For this research, Allison studied the protein found on the surface of immune cells, which he later discovered was hindering the immune system to fight off tumors. By coming up with a way to suppress this action, his discovery is said to provide promise for cancer cure.
Stephen Elledge from the Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital, together with Evelyn Witkin from the Rutgers University will co-receive the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their impeccable discoveries about the DNA and how such findings could help to elevate treatment for various diseases.
Elledge and his colleagues were driven by the complex mechanisms involved in the creation of the DNA, which is the detailed blueprint of cellular formation. Because of faulty cellular actions, as well as external factors, the copy of cells created becomes susceptible to damage. When these damages clump, the ability of the cells to make a perfect copy of itself as needed becomes impaired, resulting in various diseases, such as cancer. In Elledge's work, he explains that there exists a pathway that signals the cell when DNA has been injured. Called the DNA damage response, this network detects the problem and transmits a message to the entire cell so self-repair may ensue as necessary.
Witkin's discovery complements that of Elledge's as it focused on the manner with which bacteria responds to DNA injuries. Together with Dr. Miroslav Radman from the Free University of Brussels, they suggested that damage to the DNA creates a distress signal that provokes biological actions that focus on rescue measures -- something they call the "the S O S hypothesis."
The Lasker Foundation has commended medical and scientific experts, as well public servants, who have provided exemplary contribution in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human pathologies since 1945.
