Groundbreaking work in cancer and stem cell research highlights tremendous medical and financial potential of emerging biotechnologies
The recipients of The 2009 Lasker Awards, announced today, represent the dramatic advances achieved in biotechnology research that have led to a revolutionary cancer treatment and the tremendous promise of stem cell therapy for regenerative medicine. Such advances portend a potential $700 million global market for new therapies within less than five years, according to Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN, www.genengnews.com).
The Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for 2009 recognizes discoveries in the process that instructs specialized adult cells to form stem cells, and will be presented to Sir John Gurdon, DPhil, DSc, FRS, Emeritus Professor and Group Leader, Gurdon Institute of Cancer & Developmental Biology, University of Cambridge, and Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University.
The 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award honors outstanding therapeutic research on chronic myeloid leukemia, and will be given to Brian J. Druker, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Leukemia Center, Oregon Health Sciences University, Nicholas B. Lydon, PhD, formerly of Novartis, and Charles L. Sawyers, MD, Head of the Laboratory in Human Oncology and Pathogenesis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.