Laskers Go to Immunologists, Developers of Breast Cancer Therapy

The 2019 Lasker medical and research awards celebrate advances in scientists’ understanding of T and B cells, Herceptin antibodies for treating breast cancer, and vaccine coverage around the globe.

Written byJef Akst
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ABOVE: A nurse vaccinates a baby at the Ngbaka health center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
GAVI, PHIL MOORE

The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has awarded immunologist Jacques Miller of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and his collaborator Max Cooper of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, the $250,000 prize for basic medical research for their work identifying T and B cells in the middle of the 20th century. It was “a monumental achievement that provided the organizing principle of the adaptive immune system and launched the course of modern immunology,” according to the announcement.

The 2019 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award goes to H. Michael Shepard, formerly of Genentech, Dennis Slamon of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Axel Ullrich of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and formerly of Genentech for the development of a monoclonal antibody therapy called ...

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  • Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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