With the fall comes the announcement of multiple, prestigious, scientific awards; the first of which are those given by the Lasker Foundation. Established in 1945 by Mary and Albert Lasker—pioneering biomedical research advocates—the Lasker Awards (which carry an honorarium of $250,000 for each category) are now widely regarded as America’s preeminent biomedical research prize.
Zhijian “James” Chen, PhD, professor in the department of molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and an HHMI investigator, will receive the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for the discovery of the cGAS enzyme, which senses the DNA of invading organisms or damaged cells and triggers the body to make a rapid immune response.
The discovery of the cGAS enzyme solved a pivotal biomedical mystery of how DNA stimulates immune and inflammatory responses. This process begins when cGAS binds to cytoplasmic DNA and in response synthesizes cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP), which in turn activates STING (stimulator of interferon genes). STING then triggers an inflammatory response, which includes the production of Type 1 interferons, essential for combatting infections and regulating immune responses. Chen’s research reveals the workings of a highly conserved part of the innate immune system—present in organisms from bacteria to humans. In addition, aberrant responses to self DNA can initiate autoimmune diseases. Thus, cGAS represents a crucial element in the interplay between DNA sensing and immune activation and holds promise for fighting infectious diseases, cancer, and for managing autoimmune diseases.
Joel Habener, MD, physician investigator in the endocrine division at Mass General Research Institute and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, DMSc, chief scientific advisor at Novo Nordisk, and Svetlana Mojsov, PhD, research associate professor at the Rockefeller University, will receive the Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their discovery and development of GLP1-based drugs that have had a significant impact on fighting obesity.
In the 1970s, Habener, an endocrinologist, became interested in how the hormone glucagon fits into the puzzle of how the body regulates blood sugar levels. Habener not only cloned the gene for glucagon, but also discovered that it encodes another molecule that resembles glucagon called GLP-1 (glucagon-like-peptide-1).
Independently, Mojsov, a chemist, identified and synthesized the physiologically active form of GLP-1, developed methods that detected GLP-1 in the intestines, and uncovered essential aspects of GLP-1 biology.
Beginning in the 1990s, Knudsen, the head of GLP-1 therapeutics at Novo Nordisk, and her team transformed these breakthroughs into treatments to fight diabetes (Ozempic) and obesity (Wegovy), advancing the duration of the drug’s therapeutic effects from a few hours to over a week.
Through their discoveries and dedicated efforts, Habener, Mojsov, and Knudsen have introduced a new era of weight management, dramatically improving the well-being and health prospects of hundreds of millions. Their work has opened up a burgeoning field of studies about the numerous health benefits seen during GLP-1 therapy, including those related to cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disorders, fatty liver disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and addiction.
Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical School and associate scientific director of CAPRISA (Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa), and Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, CAPRISA professor for global health in the department of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, are honored with the Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award for their contributions to combatting the spread of HIV/AIDS and for transformative public health advocacy and programming throughout Africa and globally. Their research insights and advocacy work have defined new life-saving preventive and treatment approaches for people with HIV/AIDS, an infection that has claimed 42 million lives and with which 40 million people live today.
The awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York City on Friday, September 27, 2024.
The 2023 Lasker Awards honored, among others, an artificial intelligence system for predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins.
