The Japan Prize Foundation has named MIT Professor Robert Weinberg as one of the recipients of its 2021 awards in the group of Medical Science and Medicinal Science, citing Weinberg’s contributions to the advancement of a multi-stage model of how most cancers starts and progresses, and the software of that product to enhance most cancers solutions and results.
Weinberg, along with co-recipient Bert Vogelstein of the Johns Hopkins University Faculty of Medication, will receive his award in April at a presentation ceremony attended by the emperor and empress of Japan. “Dr. Weinberg’s get the job done has led to the identification of vital genes for cancer development that have subsequently been permitted as therapeutic targets, ensuing in 1000’s of life staying saved,” writes the Japan Prize Foundation in their information launch.
“This award is a tribute to the excellent experts who have labored alongside me throughout my time at the Whitehead Institute,” says Weinberg, a Whitehead Institute founding member who is the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Most cancers Research at MIT, as effectively as an extramural member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Most cancers Investigation at MIT.
In 1979, Weinberg and his lab identified the initially gene linked with tumor formation in humans, also recognised as an oncogene. In the many years since, he has devoted his profession to learning not only the genetic basis of cancer, but also the approaches in which cancerous cells unfold and proliferate during the body. His work, together with Vogelstein’s, is credited with the improvement of new places of cancer investigate, including the notion of qualified cancer therapies, and the broader area of precision drugs.
Weinberg joins a list of distinguished researchers from about the entire world who have been given the prestigious Japan Prize, which is intended to specific Japan’s gratitude to the global local community. Every 12 months, the Japan Prize Foundation selects two specialized fields of science and technology and solicits nominations from around a thousand experts and engineers across Japan and abroad. This calendar year, these scientists nominated 385 persons, and three gained a prize. In addition to Weinberg and Vogelstein, Martin A. Environmentally friendly, a professor at the University of New South Wales, was also honored this year, in the class of Sources, Electrical power, Atmosphere, and Social Infrastructure.
“Weinberg’s do the job on oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in cancer exploration has served generate the paradigm of most cancers development as we know it right now, and has led the industry of cancer biology in new and fruitful directions,” suggests Whitehead Institute director and MIT professor of biology Ruth Lehmann. “His analysis has laid the foundation for the development of new remedies that are strengthening the life of most cancers clients about the environment.”