Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Another American Cancer Society Research Grantee Receives Nobel Prize

One of the three scientists receiving the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is a former American Cancer Society research grantee, bringing the number of Nobel Laureates among the Society’s funded researchers to 44. Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D., of Yale University received two multi-year grants from the American Cancer Society between 1983 and 1997 totaling more than $1 million. Dr. Steitz has also mentored two post-doctoral researchers (Carl Correll, Ph.D. 1993-1995 and Virginia Rath, Ph.D, 1992-1995). He was honored today along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, for describing the ribosome and its function. Earlier this week, former American Cancer Society research grantee Jack W. Szostak of the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass., was a co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The 44 Society-supported researchers who have won the prize since 1946 is a record that is unmatched in the non-profit arena. This research into understanding an underlying mechanistic cause of cancer will also continue to inform the area of cancer detection and diagnosis as well as treatment. The American Cancer Society investment in cancer research facilitates the research advances and also is amplified by the training impact of future professionals who will contribute more cancer research discoveries.

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