THE 2009 LOUIS-JEANTET PRIZE-WINNERS
The information below refers to the time of the award.
 |
 |
|
The 2009 LOUIS-JEANTET PRIZE FOR MEDICINE is awarded to the Swiss-American biologist Michael N. HALL and to the British doctor and cell biologist Peter J. RATCLIFFE.
The prize-winners are conducting fundamental biological research with significant implications for medicine.
Michael N. HALL is awarded the 2009 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine for his pioneering research on fundamental mechanisms in the control of cell growth.
He identified a protein - known as TOR (Target of Rapamycin) - that is a central controller of cell growth. Although Michael N. HALL's research is clearly of a fundamental nature, it should lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies. The TOR protein plays a key role in development and ageing, but is also implicated in immune response, cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.
Michael N. HALL plans to use the prize money to continue his research on TOR, to explain this protein's role not only in single cells, but also in tissues and in the body in general.
Peter J. RATCLIFFE is awarded the 2009 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine for his pioneering research on the mechanisms by which cells detect levels of available oxygen.
He identified the fundamental processes by which cells detect and adapt themselves to changes in oxygen availability, and especially how they respond to a lack of oxygen (which is known as hypoxia). Peter J. RATCLIFFE’s work has led to a better understanding of the development of numerous pathologies, such as cancer and pulmonary or cardiovascular disease, where a lack of oxygen in the cell (hypoxia) plays an important role.
Peter J. RATCLIFFE plans to use the prize money to continue research on the biological responses to hypoxia, and to identify new therapeutic strategies.
THE AWARD CEREMONY was held on Thursday, April 23, 2009, in Geneva (Switzerland).
Video on Michael N. Hall