September 13, 2016

Lasker Award Honors William Kaelin, MD, Harrington Scientific Advisory Board Member

By Steph Yin

The Lasker Awards, among the most respected prizes in medicine, will go to six researchers who made major discoveries in physiology and virology, and to a scientist who has tirelessly promoted science education, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced on Tuesday.

The awards, honoring basic medical research, clinical research and special achievement, each come with a $250,000 prize and a nice omen: 87 Lasker laureates have also won Nobel Prizes.

This year’s awards speak to the additive nature of scientific research, with both the basic and clinical research prizes recognizing scientists who worked independently of one another but who built on one another’s findings, said Joseph L. Goldstein, chairman of the awards jury.

Three physician-scientists — William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza — shared the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for elucidating the cellular path by which almost all animals respond to variations in oxygen.

Continue Reading on The New York Times site.