The John Innes Centre receives strategic funding from BBSRC
The John Innes Centre receives strategic funding from BBSRC
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2008 Lasker Awards for Medical ResearchSeptember 2008
David Baulcombe, until recently a project leader at the Sainsbury Laboratory, has received the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for the discovery of tiny RNAs that regulate gene function. These RNAs, some of which are known as microRNAs, govern a multitude of activities in animals and plants, and they have been implicated in a wide range of diseases. First presented in 1946, the Lasker Awards are the USA’s most distinguished honour for outstanding basic and clinical medical research discoveries and for lifetime contributions to medical science. 'I am delighted that David has been recognised for this hugely influential piece of research' said Professor Chris Lamb, Director of the John Innes Centre. 'Our leading-edge science has greatly benefitted from the close working relationship between the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory, which continues to flourish since David Baulcombe's very recent move to the University of Cambridge.' The Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research honours Victor R. Ambros, 54, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, David C. Baulcombe, 56, now Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, and Gary B. Ruvkun, 56, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and Harvard University, who discovered tiny RNAs that regulate gene function. These RNAs, some of which are known as microRNAs, govern a multitude of activities in animals and plants, and they have been implicated in a wide range of diseases. The Awards will be presented at a luncheon ceremony on Friday, September 26th at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. The Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, recipient of the 1985 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985, chairs the 24-member international scientific jury that selects recipients of the Lasker Awards. He said that “the 2008 Lasker Awards honor investigators whose open-minded thinking and experimentation challenged conventional wisdom. Their work launched new fields of scientific research that have fostered significant advances in the medical arena.” The discovery of small regulatory ribonucleic acids (RNAs) by Victor Ambros, David Baulcombe, and Gary Ruvkun broke open an entire new field. Until that time, proteins, not RNAs, were thought to govern gene activity in animal cells. “No one imagined that such tiny RNAs could perform useful tasks. In fact, the notion that small RNAs could control gene expression was unheard of,” Goldstein said. “Now, laboratories all over the world study hundreds of these RNAs.” The tiny molecules control a vast number of genes in plants as well as animals, and play roles in human health and disease, including cancer, viral infections, and congestive heart failure. The Lasker Awards are given by the Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation. Dr. Freire said that she and the Board of Directors are delighted at the recommendations of the Lasker Jury, and congratulates the winners of this year’s Awards. “They follow the tradition of prior laureates in their innovative scientific and medical research for the betterment of people worldwide.” The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Lasker Awards often presage future recognition by the Nobel committee, so they have become popularly known as “America’s Nobels.” Seventy-five Lasker laureates have received the Nobel Prize, including 27 in the last two decades.
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