Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award 2015
Geneticists Evelyn Witkin, of Rutgers University, and Stephen Elledge, of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the 2015 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discovering how the DNA-damage response protects against DNA damage.
Witkin established the existence of the DNA-damage response in bacteria, and Elledge built upon Witkin’s research by finding the molecular events in more complex organisms. Though their approaches differed, both approaches identified a large number of genes that protected DNA against damage and supported healthy DNA replication.
In the 1960’s, Witkin’s research identified an “SOS response” when DNA was severely compromised that triggered switches on dozens of genes to help DNA repair and replicate. By the late 1980s, researchers understood that cells that contained nuclei, unlike bacteria, also responded to DNA damage but the process wasn’t clear.
Stephen Elledge and his colleagues built on the DNA-damage response by discovering when yeast DNA was damaged and replication blocked, the amount of the messenger RNA enzyme called ribonucleotide reductase increased. The behavior made sense to Elledge because the enzyme helps construct DNA building blocks.
Witkin and Elledge’s research is important because DNA-damage response have been linked to cancer, immune system defects, and brain disorders.
Lasker Foundation
Tags: anti-cancer, cancer awareness
