Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Mass. claims two Lasker medical research award winners

By Mass High Tech Staff

The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has honored two local researchers with one of “America’s Nobels.”

Victor Ambros, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Gary Ruvkin, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, share the 2008 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, along with David Baulcombe, professor of botany at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

The award, dating back to 1946, honors individuals who have made notable contributions to the “techniques, information or concepts contributing to the elimination of major causes of disability and death,” according to the Lasker Foundation.

Ambros, Ruvkin and Baulcombe are being recognized for the discovery of RNA gene regulation activity in plants and animals, which could eventually lead to regulating of disease-carrying genes.

As a member of the RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp. scientific advisory board, Ambros joins distinguished company in RXi co-founder and chairman of the SAB, Craig Mello, a Nobel Prize winner, along with co-founder and SAB member Greg Hannon, who won the American Association for Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research.

The Lasker Awards have a history of paving the way for Nobel Prize winners; the Lasker Foundation claims 75 Lasker award winners who followed up their distinction with Nobel Prizes.