WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Five scientists awarded the 2019 Lasker Awards, regarded as the top biomedical research prize in the U.S.
This year's Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award went to two scientists, Max D. Cooper from Emory University and Australian biologist Jacques Miller, who identified and defined the function of B and T cells, uncovering the organizing principle of the adaptive immune response.
Their "seminal discoveries defined the field of adaptive immunity and serve as the building blocks for current immunology research and clinical advances," according to the Lasker Foundation, which awards the prizes.
American oncologists H. Michael Shepard and Dennis J. Slamon, and German biochemist Axel Ullrich will receive Lasker awards for creating the first monoclonal antibody therapy that targets a protein encoded by a cancer-causing gene.
Their combined efforts provided the first demonstration that monoclonal antibodies were a viable and effective strategy to treat solid tumors, opening a new path to develop and deploy antibodies to treat cancer.
Global vaccine alliance Gavi will be honored with the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award. The organization helped vaccinate over 760 million children and save over 13 million lives in 73 countries since its launch in 2000.
