Translated material
The first step towards a medical Nobel Prize
The 2007 Albert Lasker Prize winners have been announced in the United States.
The American honorary award is given to physicians (or those who are somehow related to medicine by the nature of their activities) and is highly valued among professionals. It is sometimes considered a kind of preliminary stage of selection for the Nobel Prize in the field of physiology or medicine (it is alleged that 72 Laskerovka laureates were later awarded in Stockholm). Of course, it is not at all necessary that the winner of the American prize will subsequently reach Sweden, but his Nobel chances are said to be significantly increased. This year's Albert Lasker Prize went to three Americans - Ralph Steinman, Albert Starr and Anthony Fauci - and the Frenchman Alain Carpentier.The Lasker Prize belongs to the second or third tier of scientific awards. At the top of this prize pyramid is, naturally, the Nobel Prize (although, oddly enough, it is not the oldest and not the largest in terms of prize money). Below it are a dozen lesser-promoted awards, most of which are more specialized (like, for example, the Fields Medals, awarded to mathematicians forgotten by Alfred Nobel).
The award was established in 1946 by the famous businessman Albert Lasker, who is sometimes pompously called the “father of modern advertising,” and his wife. This award differs from the Nobel Prize not only in its narrow specialization, but also in less stringent rules for selecting nominees. In particular, it was awarded to researchers who had already passed on to another world, while, according to a malicious joke, in order to wait your turn to receive the Swedish prize, you need to have enviable health and longevity (deceased scientists no longer have any chance). In addition, if the Nobel Prize has a fixed number of nominations, then the American award has changed the number of prizes from time to time.
Basically, three awards are given - for basic research, clinical work and for “public service”. The latter is for officials, politicians, public figures, etc., who contributed to the development of medicine and the improvement of the healthcare system. Each of the nominations now costs 150 thousand dollars, which is significantly less than the Nobel Prize - 10 million Swedish kronor. In addition, in the bonus system of Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Wooddard Lasker, there are or existed several other irregular nominations (for example, for journalists writing on non-medical topics).
Lasker's "fundamentalist" will be presented to 64-year-old Ralph Steinman from New York's Rockefeller University on September 28 in New York. This respected scientist previously contributed to the study of the human immune system with the discovery of dendritic (tree-like) cells. These cells trigger the body's defense against foreign viruses and microbes. They “catch” pathogens and destroy them. Dendritic cells then select key fragments of the “strangers” and configure special T cells to detect them, moving around the body in search of enemies.
For clinical research, the award was shared by Alain Carpentier (European Hospital Georges Pompidou, Paris) and Albert Star from Portland. This is how their work on the technology of transplanting prosthetic heart valves was assessed. “These devices have extended and improved the lives of millions of people suffering from heart disease,” noted a press release from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The award for “service to society” was given to Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who developed a pair of government programs - to combat AIDS and in the field of biological defense.
It should be noted that nominations such as the one that Fauci received are relatively rare: as a rule, managers from science (or, in this case, from practical medicine) quite rarely receive awards like Lasker’s. Still, they mainly celebrate creators, inventors, those who create new theories or successfully apply them in applied disciplines. The academic community often considers administrators a necessary evil: they are tolerated, but are not allowed to receive awards. It is interesting that the Lasker family became an exception among patrons of the arts, introducing a nomination that could, without much error, be called “Best Bureaucrat.”
As for the relationship between Russian medicine and the Lasker Prize, figuratively speaking, even diplomatic relations have not been established between them. However, the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine has long bypassed our specialists. Apparently, the only laureate of the Lasker Award with some connection to our country is Alexander Varshavsky, who received a third of the nomination for clinical research in 2000. Judging by the official biography, he was born in Moscow, graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University and defended himself at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After that, in the late 70s of the last century, he emigrated and worked in the USA.