Among this year's crop of Lasker award winners are researchers being honored for their work into the DNA-damage response, ScienceInsider reports.
Rutgers University's Evelyn Witkin and Stephen Elledge at Brigham and Women's Hospital studied how DNA responds to and protects itself from damage. Witkin uncovered the existence of the DNA-damage response in bacteria while studying bacterial radiation resistance, while Elledge elucidated its molecular pathway in more complex organisms, according to the Lasker Foundation.
"Witkin and Elledge laid the conceptual and experimental foundation for our understanding of these intricately organized systems, which ensure genetic fidelity and safeguard organismal vitality," the foundation adds. They are the recipients of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
Meanwhile, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is going to James Allison from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for developing monoclonal antibody therapy to treat cancer and the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award is honoring Doctors Without Borders for its response to the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa.
As ScienceInsider says, each prize comes with $250,000 award and will be given out at a ceremony next week.
It also adds that the Lasker awards also kick off the Nobel Prize betting season as more than 30 Lasker recipients have gone on to receive a Nobel.