National Biomedical Research Day 2011

October 21, 2011 | by

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist [1]. He was born on October 21st, 1833. After his death in 1896, much of his estate was used to establish the Nobel Prize. In 1993 on the 160th anniversary of Nobel’s birth, President Bill Clinton proclaimed October 21st as “National Biomedical Research Day” [2].

National Biomedical Research Day

On National Biomedical Research Day, we celebrate the central role that biomedical research plays in improving human health and longevity. On this day, we acknowledge the promise that biomedical research plays for securing the future physical and mental well-being of people around the world. Biomedical research not only provides data that scientists and physicians need to treat and prevent diseases, but it also reveals the fundamental nature of life in humans, other animals, and plants.

Activation of the Immune System and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 4, 2011 | by

nobel medal in medicineThe 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced on Monday. The prize was awarded to three scientists for their work on the body’s immune system.

The prize of 10-million-Swedish-krona (US$1.5-million) was divided, one half jointly to Bruce A. Beutler, age 54, at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, and Jules A. Hoffmann, age 70, at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology in Strasbourg, for their discovery of receptor proteins that can recognize bacteria and other microorganisms and activate innate immunity, and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman, age 68, at Rockefeller University in New York, for his discovery of dendritic cells of the immune system and their unique capacity to activate and regulate adaptive immunity, the later stage of the immune response during which microorganisms are cleared from the body.

In Vitro Fertilization and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 6, 2010 | by
nobel medal in medicine

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced on Monday. The prize was awarded to a British scientist for his role in developing human in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy. IVF is a process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside the body, in vitro.

Over the years, IVF has helped millions of infertile couples worldwide have children. Biologist and physiologist Robert G. Edwards, age 85, at the University of Cambridge, developed the technique with obstetrician and gynecologist Patrick Christopher Steptoe, who died in 1988. The prize is worth about $1.5 million and is the first awarded in the area of reproduction.

Chromosome Telomeres and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 9, 2009 | by

nobel medal in medicineThe 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced earlier this week. The prize was awarded to three U.S. scientists for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

Two women, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, age 61, at the University of California in San Francisco, and Carol W. Greider, age 48, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore along with one man, Jack W. Szostak, age 57, at Harvard Medical School, will share the $1.4 million prize.

Viral-based Human Disease and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 10, 2008 | by

nobel medal in medicineThe 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced earlier this week. The prize was awarded to three europeans for the discoveries of two viruses that cause severe human disease; the cancer-causing human papilloma virus (HPV) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Two French scientists, Luc Montagnier, age 76, at the University of Paris in Paris, France and Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, age 61, at the Institut Pasteur in Garches, France will split half the prize for their discovery of the HIV virus. Barré-Sinoussi is the 8th woman to receive the Nobel award for Physiology or Medicine.

A German researcher, Harald zur Hausen, age 72, at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, will receive the other half of the $1.3 million prize for establishing that most cervical cancers are caused by two types of human papilloma virus.