Lasker Award

The Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodward Lasker (later an influential medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels." As of 2005, 71 recipients have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. James W. Fordyce is the current President of the Foundation.

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The four main awards are:

• Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research
• Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service (renamed in 2000 from Albert Lasker Public Service Award)
• Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award (1994-)

Recent awards

Winners of the 2006 Lasker Awards were announced September 16, 2006. Among announcements were the following awards: (Reuters), (laskerfoundation.org)

• The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, for work on telomerase and genome integrity, went to:
  • Elizabeth Blackburn (University of California, San Francisco),
  • Carol W. Greider (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine), and
  • Jack Szostak (Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute)

• Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research:
  • Aaron T. Beck (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) for developing cognitive therapy.

• Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award:
  • Joseph G. Gall (Carnegie Institution of Washington) for his work as an early leader of modern cell biology, particularly for the development of in situ hybridization, and as an early champion of women in science.

On September 15, 2007, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the 2007 Lasker Award winners which included 2 surgeons:

Drs. Alain Carpentier, 74, Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris; Albert Starr, 81, of the Providence Health System in Portland, Oregon;

Dr. Ralph Steinman, 64, of Rockefeller University in Manhattan; and Dr. Anthony Fauci, 66, an internationally known immunologist.

Dr. Steinman and Dr. Fauci will each receive $150,000 and Dr. Starr and Dr. Carpentier will each receive $75,000.^[1]

References