WASHINGTON--The American Society for Microbiology here announced that Eric Lander of the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Genome Research, and David Botstein and Ronald Davis of Stanford University, have been awarded the 1998 Chiron Corporation Biotechnology Research Award.
Botstein and Davis received the award for their work explaining the general principles of the application of genetic linkage analysis using molecular markers. They recognized some genetic markers could be used both for the construction of genetic maps and the localization and cloning of disease genes.
Lander was recognized for providing tools for the use of molecular markers in mapping disease genes. He developed statistical methods to allow the analysis of large data sets of genetic information. Lander's leadership at the Whitehead Institute contributed to the establishment of the first validated whole-genome physical maps of human DNA and the construction of high-resolution genetic maps of mice.
Awards will be presented to the three at the general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Atlanta next month.