LASKER Award (sometimes referred to as America's Nobels)

Lasker Awards recognize the contributions of researchers, clinician scientists, and public servants who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of disease.

The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (later a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as America's Nobels.

Lasker Award has gained a reputation for identifying future winners of the Nobel Prize. Eighty-nine Lasker laureates have received the Nobel Prize, including 35 in the last two decades.

The award is given in four branches of Medical sciences:

• Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award
• Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award
• Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award (Renamed in 2000/2011 from previous Lasker Public Service Awards)
• Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science (1994–)(optional)

The awards carry an honorarium of $250,000 for each category. In addition to the main awards, there are historical awards that are no longer awarded.

Winners of the LASKER Awards

Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award winners

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for the outstanding discovery, Contribution and achievement in the field of medicine and Human Physiology. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine: almost 50% of the winners have gone on to win one.

• 2022: Richard O. Hynes, Erkki Ruoslahti, Timothy A. Springer, For discoveries concerning the integrins—key mediators of cell-matrix and cell-cell adhesion in physiology and disease
• 2021: Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Dieter Oesterhelt, For the discovery of light-sensitive microbial proteins that can activate or silence individual brain cells and for their use in developing optogenetics—a revolutionary technique for neuroscience
• 2019: Max Dale Cooper and Jacques Miller, For their discovery of the two distinct classes of lymphocytes, B and T cells – a monumental achievement that provided the organizing principle of the adaptive immune system and launched the course of modern immunology.
• 2018: C. David Allis and Michael Grunstein, For discoveries elucidating how gene expression is influenced by chemical modification of histones—the proteins that package DNA within chromosomes.
• 2017: Michael N. Hall, For discoveries concerning the nutrient-activated TOR proteins and their central role in the metabolic control of cell growth.
• 2016: William G. Kaelin, Jr. (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019), Peter J. Ratcliffe (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019) and Gregg L. Semenza (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019), For the discovery of the pathway by which cells from humans and most animals sense and adapt to changes in oxygen availability – a process essential for survival.
• 2015: Stephen J. Elledge and Evelyn M. Witkin, For the discovery and development of a monoclonal antibody therapy that unleashes the immune system to combat cancer.
• 2014: Kazutoshi Mori and Peter Walter, For discoveries concerning the unfolded protein response — an intracellular quality control system that detects harmful misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and signals the nucleus to carry out corrective measures.
• 2013: Richard H. Scheller and Thomas C. Südhof (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013), For discoveries concerning the molecular machinery and regulatory mechanism that underlie the rapid release of neurotransmitters.
• 2012: Michael Sheetz, James Spudich and Ronald Vale, For discoveries concerning cytoskeletal motor proteins, machines that move cargoes within cells, contract muscles, and enable cell movements.
• 2011: Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur L. Horwich, For discoveries concerning the cell's protein-folding machinery, exemplified by cage-like structures that convert newly made proteins into their biologically active forms.
• 2010: Douglas L. Coleman and Jeffrey M. Friedman, Discovery of leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite and body weight—a breakthrough that opened obesity research to molecular exploration.
• 2009: John Gurdon (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012) and Shinya Yamanaka (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012), Discoveries concerning nuclear reprogramming, the process that instructs specialized adult cells to form early stem cells—creating the potential to become any type of mature cell for experimental or therapeutic purposes.
• 2008: Victor Ambros, David Baulcombe and Gary Ruvkun, Discoveries that revealed an unanticipated world of tiny RNAs that regulate function in plants and animals.
• 2007: Ralph Steinman (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011), The discovery of dendritic cells—the preeminent component of the immune system that initiates and regulates the body's response to foreign antigens.
• 2006: Elizabeth Blackburn (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009), Carol Greider (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009), and Jack Szostak (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009), The prediction and discovery of telomerase, a remarkable RNA-containing enzyme that synthesizes the ends of chromosomes, protecting them and maintaining the integrity of the genome.
• 2005: Ernest McCulloch and James Till, Ingenious experiments that first identified a stem cell—the blood-forming stem cell—which set the stage for all current research on adult and embryonic stem cells.
• 2004: Pierre Chambon, Ronald M. Evans and Elwood V. Jensen, For the discovery of the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors and elucidation of a unifying mechanism that regulates embryonic development and diverse metabolic pathways.
• 2003: Robert G. Roeder, Pioneering studies on eukaryotic RNA polymerases and the general transcriptional machinery, which opened gene expression in animal cells to biochemical analysis.
• 2002: James E. Rothman (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013) and Randy W. Schekman (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013), Discoveries revealing the universal molecular machinery that orchestrates the budding and fusion of membrane vesicles—a process essential to organelle formation, nutrient uptake, and secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters.
• 2001: Mario R. Capecchi (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007), Martin J. Evans (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007) and Oliver Smithies (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007), Development of a powerful technology for manipulating the mouse genome with exquisite precision, which allows the creation of animal models of human disease.
• 2000: Aaron Ciechanover (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004), Avram Hershko (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004) and Alexander Varshavsky, For the discovery and recognition of the broad significance of the ubiquitin system of regulated protein degradation, a fundamental process that influences vital cellular events, including the cell cycle, malignant transformation, and responses to inflammation and immunity.

Award winner for Basic Medical Research for earlier years

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Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award winners

Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is one of four annual awards presented by the Lasker Foundation. The Lasker-DeBakey award is given to honour outstanding work for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of disease. This award was renamed in 2008 in honour of Michael E. DeBakey. It was previously known as the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

• 2022: Yuk Ming Dennis Lo, For the discovery of fetal DNA in maternal blood, leading to noninvasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome
• 2021: Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, For the discovery of a new therapeutic technology based on the modification of messenger RNA—enabling rapid development of highly effective Covid-19 vaccines
• 2019: H. Michael Shepard, Dennis J. Slamon and Axel Ullrich, For their invention of Herceptin, the first monoclonal antibody that blocks a cancer-causing protein, and for its development as a life-saving therapy for women with breast cancer.
• 2018: John B. Glen, For the discovery and development of propofol, a chemical whose rapid action and freedom from residual effects have made it the most widely used agent for induction of anaesthesia in patients throughout the world.
• 2017: Douglas R. Lowy and John T. Schiller [de], For technological advances that enabled development of HPV vaccines for prevention of cervical cancer and other tumors caused by human papillomaviruses.
• 2016: Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager, [ Charles M. Rice (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020)] and Michael J. Sofia, For development of a system to study the replication of the virus that causes hepatitis C and for use of this system to revolutionize the treatment of this chronic, often lethal disease.
• 2015: James P. Allison (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2018), For the discovery and development of a monoclonal antibody therapy that unleashes the immune system to combat cancer.
• 2014: Alim-Louis Benabid and Mahlon R. DeLong, For the development of deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, a surgical technique that reduces tremors and restores motor function in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.
• 2013: Graeme M. Clark, Ingeborg Hochmair and Blake S. Wilson, For the development of the modern cochlear implant — a device that bestows hearing to individuals with profound deafness.
• 2012: Roy Calne and Thomas Starzl, For the development of liver transplantation, which has restored normal life to thousands of patients with end-stage liver disease.
• 2011: Tu Youyou (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015), For the discovery of artemisinin, a drug therapy for malaria that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world.
• 2010: Napoleone Ferrara, Discovery of VEGF as a major mediator of angiogenesis and the development of an effective anti-VEGF therapy for wet macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the elderly.
• 2009: Brian J. Druker, Nicholas Lydon and Charles Sawyers, The development of molecularly-targeted treatments for chronic myeloid leukemia, converting a fatal cancer into a manageable chronic condition.
• 2008: Akira Endo, The discovery of the statins—drugs with remarkable LDL-cholesterol-lowering properties that have revolutionized the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease.
• 2007: Alain Carpentier and Albert Starr, The development of prosthetic mitral and aortic valves, which have prolonged and enhanced the lives of millions of people with heart disease.
• 2006: Aaron Beck,The development of cognitive therapy, which has transformed the understanding and treatment of many psychiatric conditions, including depression, suicidal behavior, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, and eating disorders.
• 2005: Alec John Jeffreys and Edwin Mellor Southern, Development of two powerful technologies—Southern hybridization and DNA fingerprinting—that together revolutionized human genetics and forensic diagnostics.
• 2004: Charles Kelman, For revolutionizing the surgical removal of cataracts, turning a 10-day hospital stay into an outpatient procedure, and dramatically reducing complications.
• 2003: Marc Feldmann and Ravinder N. Maini, Discovery of anti-TNF therapy as an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
• 2002: Willem J. Kolff and Belding H. Scribner, Development of renal hemodialysis, which changed kidney failure from a fatal to a treatable disease, prolonging the useful lives of millions of patients.
• 2001: Robert G. Edwards (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010), Development of in vitro fertilisation, a technological advance that has revolutionised the treatment of human infertility.
• 2000: Harvey J. Alter (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020) and [ Michael Houghton (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020)], Discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C and the development of screening methods that reduced the risk of blood transfusion-associated hepatitis in the U.S. from 30% in 1970 to virtually zero in 2000.

Award winner for Clinical Medical Research for earlier years