The 2008 winners of Canada's most internationally recognized prize for biomedical research have been unveiled by the Gairdner Foundation. The recipients of this year's Gairdner International awards, who were announced Apr. 15, 2008, will each receive $30 000, a certificate and a La Coeur statue.
Gairdner Foundation president Dr. John Dirks said the 5 International recipients “have made major advances in human biology and disease.”
The Gairdners were founded 49 years ago by the late Toronto businessman James Gairdner and today rank among the most prestigious awards in science. Some 70 of 288 Gairdner recipients have gone on to win the Nobel Prize (www.gairdner.org).
The 2008 Gairdner winners are:
Harald zur Hausen, Professor Emeritus and recent Chairman and Scientific Director, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany, “for the discovery of the causative role of papillomaviruses in cancer of the cervix which led to the development of a successful HPV [human papillomavirus] vaccine.” Zur Hausen is reknowned for having speculated in the early 1970s that there is a link between sexually transmitted human papillomaviruses and cervical cancers after noting that there was a much higher incidence of the disease among prostitutes than nuns. He proved the link a decade later and has since been involved in the discovery of a large number of novel virus types, including HPV 6, 11, 16, 18 and the African Green Monkey Epstein-Barr Virus.
Victor Ambros, professor of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States and Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics, Department of Molecular Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States “for the discovery of microRNAs and their mechanism of gene regulation.” The tiny, noncoding single-stranded ribonucleac acid molecules known as microRNAs are believed to have a complementary role to messenger RNAs during the process by which they are bound to DNA and then with amino acids to create the proteins that make up the human body. Essentially, microRNAs are believed to mediate the production of protein by messenger RNAs of specific target genes.
Nahum Sonenberg, professor, Department of Biochemistry and McGill Cancer Centre, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, “for discovery of mechanisms controlling gene expression in human cells at the level of protein synthesis.”
Samuel Weiss, professor of cell biology and anatomy and pharmacology and therapeutics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, “for his seminal discovery of adult neural stem cells in the mammalian brain and its importance in nerve cell regeneration.”
The Foundation also issued a special award, the 2008 Gairdner Wightman for outstanding leadership in Canadian medicine to Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Executive Director Alan Bernstein “for his outstanding contribution to Canadian health research as a scientist, research institute director and as the inaugural President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.” Bernstein assumed the CIHR presidency in 2002 and resigned last year (CMAJ 2007;177[3]:241 and CMAJ 2007;177[8]:844-5).
Bernstein receives the 11th Gairdner Wightman to be awarded. Hereafter, it will be awarded annually. Commencing in 2009, the cash value of all Gairdner awards will be bumped to $100 000 as a consequence of the Foundation having received a $20 million endowment from the government in the 2008 federal budget. — Wayne Kondro, CMAJ
Figure. All images courtesy Gairdner Foundation