Sir Peter Ratcliffe, Clinical Research Director at the Francis
Crick Institute, has won the 2016 Lasker Award for basic medical
research - one of the most prestigious science prizes in the world
- with William G Kaelin and Gregg L Semenza.
Peter, William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza won the award for their
discovery of the pathway by which cells sense and adapt to changes
in oxygen availability, a process that is essential for
survival.
For 71 years, the Lasker Awards, America's most prestigious
biomedical research awards, have recognized the contributions of
scientists, clinicians, and public citizens who have made major
advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or
prevention of human disease. Eighty-seven Lasker laureates have
received the Nobel Prize, including 41 in the last three
decades.
Award-winning research
Animals require oxygen to extract energy from food, but too much
of the chemical creates peril, as certain oxygen-containing
compounds wreak molecular havoc. To handle this challenge,
organisms have evolved elaborate systems to furnish optimal
supplies. Peter, with William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, deciphered
the core molecular events that explain how almost all multicellular
animals tune their physiology to cope with varying quantities of
life-sustaining oxygen, thus exposing a unique signalling
scheme.
The biological processes that these findings revealed have
unearthed possible strategies to rev up or reign in the body's
response to oxygen, possibly leading toward new therapeutics for a
wide range of disorders such as anaemia, cardiovascular disease,
macular degeneration, and cancer.
Peter Ratcliffe
Peter Ratcliffe MD, of the Francis Crick Institute and the
University of Oxford, trained as a nephrologist (kidney
specialist), then founded the Oxford Hypoxia Biology Laboratory,
initially studying the regulation of erythropoietin by the kidney.
His laboratory demonstrated the existence of a widespread system of
oxygen sensing in animal cells and elucidated the mechanism by
which oxygen levels are signalled though the post-translational
hydroxylation of the key transcription factor Hypoxia Inducible
Factor (HIF). The laboratory is currently engaged in the
biochemical and physiological characterization of these and related
oxygenases, and in the exploration of their therapeutic potential
in human disease.
Peter received his degrees and medical training from the
University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and St Bartholomew's
Hospital, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a
recipient several international awards, including the Louis-Jeantet
Prize for Medicine and the Canada Gairdner International Award. He
was knighted for his services to medicine in 2014.
He took up the position of Director of Clinical Research at the
Francis Crick Institute in May 2016, and in June 2016 he took up
the position of Director of the Target Discovery Institute at the
University of Oxford, splitting his time equally between Oxford and
the Crick.
'Innovative and highly original
achievements'
Claire Pomeroy, President of the Lasker Foundation, says: 'The
work of this year's honorees epitomizes the power and impact of
dedication to rigorous and innovative medical research. The
innovative and highly original achievements of these scientists
highlight the critical importance of sustained support for
biomedical research in attaining a healthier future for all.'
Peter says: 'I'm honoured to have won this award with Bill and
Gregg. I hope that our work helps demonstrate the importance of
curiosity-driven discovery research: investigating how the human
body works, not with a specific aim in mind, but for the sake of
understanding. It's this fundamental knowledge which opens the door
for improvements in health.'
Paul Nurse, Director of the Francis Crick Institute, says: 'On
behalf of everyone at the Crick, I congratulate Peter most warmly
on receiving the Lasker Award.'
Recipients of the Lasker Medical Research Awards are selected by
a distinguished international jury chaired by Joseph L Goldstein,
recipient of the 1985 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and
the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The 2016 Lasker Awards,
which carry an honorarium of $250,000, will be presented on 23
September in New York.