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Stephen Holgate received his B.Sc., M.B., B.S., and MD from London University, and D.Sc. from Southampton University. He completed a fellowship in rheumatic diseases and immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard University. He worked in London, and Salisbury before joining the faculty of Southampton University and Hospital in 1975. In 1986, he became an MRC Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology at Southampton University and honorary consultant physician at Bournemouth and Southampton University Hospitals. He holds an FRCP from London, an FRCP from Edinburgh, and an MB, a BS honoris causa from the University of Ferrara in Italy.

Professor Holgate is the Joint Founder of Southampton’s full-time Specialist Asthma and Allergy Clinics, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Asthma, Allergy, and Inflammation Research (AAIR) Charity at Southampton General Hospital, and a Board Member of the Prince of Wales Foundation of Integrated Health. He is also Chair of the DEFRA Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards, the “Science in Health Group”, President of the National Allergy Strategy Group, and a member of the Department of Health Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution, and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

Professor Holgate is one of the leading authorities in the field of allergy, both nationally and internationally. A significant area of his research has been understanding the role of air pollutants, such as ozone, and other environmental factors (e.g., diet, common cold viruses and house dust mite allergens) in causing and in worsening allergies and asthma. Other important components of his research include the genesis, inflammatory nature and heritability of asthma. He has led the discovery of ADAM33 – the first of asthma genes.

Professor Holgate published over 700 papers and edited several textbooks on asthma and rhinitis. He received the MRC Dorothy Temple Cross Travel Fellowship; Royal College of Physicians’ Graham Bull Prize for Clinical Research; Scientific Achievements Award from the International Association of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (Stockholm) and WHO Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Award. He is an Honorary Fellow of the South African Pulmonology Society and Honorary Member of the Nordic Society of Allergology. He was also honored by numerous invited lectureships and visiting professorships.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Patrick Holt obtained a B.Sc., a Ph.D. and a D.Sc. from the University of Western Australia, and he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Britain and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Earlier during his career, he was a researcher in the Department of Pathology at the University of Western Australia, then the Department of Microbiology, conducting studies in toxicology and tumor immunology. He also worked as a senior research fellow at the Clinical Immunology Research Unit of Princess Margaret Children’s Medical Research Foundation and spent one year as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Environmental Hygiene at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden before joining the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. He is currently Deputy Director and Head of the Division of Cell Biology at TVM Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Senior Principal Research Fellow at the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and adjunct Professor of Microbiology at the University of Western Australia. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research and the Immunology Scientific Advisory Board of Entelos Inc.

Professor Holt is an allergy expert of international distinction. His pioneering research on the cellular and molecular basis of respiratory allergies and the mechanisms regulating immunological responses to inhaled allergens provided new perspectives on the causes and genesis of allergic respiratory diseases and the possibility of developing primary strategies for their prevention in childhood.

Author of numerous scientific publications in international journals, Professor Holt was awarded several prizes and honors, including an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Linköping in Sweden, the Pharmacia Foundation International Prize for Research in Allergy in 1989, Fellowship of the Collegium Allergolicum Internationale, Madeira, Spain in 1990, Pfizer’s Visiting Professorship in Allergic Diseases and Asthma at the University of Texas Medical Center in Galveston, U.S.A. in 1998, and a number of honorary lectureships. He also served as the Editor of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology in 1992.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Robert Purcell obtained a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Oklahoma State University in 1957, a master’s degree in biochemistry from Baylor University in 1960, and an MD from Duke University in 1962. After completing an internship in Pediatrics at Duke University Hospital, he joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1963 to 1965. During that time, he carried out studies on respiratory viruses and mycoplasmal diseases before turning his attention to the study of hepatitis viruses at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Laboratories in Bethesda, MD, where he became the Head of the Hepatitis Viruses Section of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1997, he joined the Senior Biomedical Research Services. He is also an adjunct Professor at several universities and a member of many medical, scientific and honor societies.

Professor Purcell authored and co-authored several books and more than 500 scientific articles, describing mainly his contributions to the discovery and characterization of the hepatitis viruses. His achievements include the first visualization of Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and the first serologic test for HAV, which helped in defining the epidemiology of this virus and its role in liver disease. His extensive laboratory and field research with Professor Gerin over the past three decades has led to the identification, characterization and screening of different hepatitis viruses and the development of vaccines to control most of them. His laboratory is currently working on the elucidation of molecular virology of these viruses.

Professor Purcell’s seminal contributions to the field of viral hepatitis earned him wide recognition. He received many other awards including the Gorgas Medal in 1977, the Distinguished Service Medal in 1978, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Duke University in 1978, the Squibb award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 1980, the Gold Medal Award of the Canadian Liver Foundation in 1984, and the Inventor’s Incentive Award of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine in 1984. He is also an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and the US National Academy of Sciences. 

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

John Gerin obtained a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His interest in vaccine development started when he joined the Scientific Research Division of Abbott Laboratories in Chicago in 1964, where he participated in the development and testing of more than 25 vaccines for protection from respiratory pathogens. He became a Group Leader of Biophysical and Biochemical Virology at the Infectious Diseases Division of Abbott Laboratories in 1965. Two years later, he left to join Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In 1968, he founded the Infectious Disease Division of ORNL, which joined Georgetown University Medical Center in 1978. He later became the Director of the Division of Molecular Virology and Immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Rockville, MD.

Professors Gerin and Robert Purcell collaborated for more than 30 years. Their extensive joint laboratory and field studies did not only lead to the discovery, identification, characterization and screening of different hepatitis viruses but also to the development of vaccines to control most of them. They were the first to show that a highly purified envelope protein from the hepatitis B virus protected non-human primates, a discovery that proved to be critical for the development of the hepatitis B vaccine. They were also responsible for the development of specific assays for the detection of hepatitis viruses, and reagents for standardized screening of blood and blood products. In addition, they developed a hepatitis A vaccine, collaborated with Professor Mario Rizzetto in the discovery of the hepatitis delta agent and discovered the waterborne hepatitis E virus in India and developed a candidate recombinant vaccine for its control. They also used relevant animal models to identify antiviral therapies for chronic type B hepatitis and studied molecular aspects of Hepatitis A virus.

Professor Gerin authored or co-authored more than 400 scientific articles and abstracts. He also edited the book Viral Hepatitis: Biological and Clinical Features, published in 1990, and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, Hepatology, the Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, Hepatology, Viral Immunology, and Vaccine Research. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Albert Sabin Vaccine Institute, and an appointed member of the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Konrad Beyreuther graduated with a B.Sc. from Ludwigs-Maximilian University of Munich and a Ph.D. in Protein Chemistry from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich. He completed his post-doctoral training in protein chemistry, molecular biology, and genetics at the Institute for Genetics in Cologne University (Germany), the Biological Laboratories at Harvard University (USA), and the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology at Cambridge University (U.K.). He obtained his Habilitation in Genetics from Cologne University and became a Professor in the Department of Biochemical Genetics at the Institute of Genetics at Cologne, before moving, in 1987, to the University of Heidelberg as a Professor of Molecular Biology and the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuropathology.

Professor Beyreuther, jointly with Colin Masters, made significant advances in the molecular biology and chemistry of amyloid plaques that characterize the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). They determined the amino acid sequence of a major protein constituent of amyloid plaques and established model systems for in vitro and in vivo studies of amyloid formation in AD. These studies opened new avenues of research into the molecular biology, genetics and pathogenesis of AD that could lead to the development of novel ways to prevent its occurrence or slow down its progression. He also conducted detailed studies of synaptic dysfunction in AD. Earlier in his career, he succeeded, in collaboration with British scientists, in identifying the scrapie-associated protein in the brains of experimentally infected animals.

Professor Beyreuther published numerous scientific papers in international journals. His outstanding contributions to the study of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly AD earned him numerous awards and honors. He received the Gunther Buch Award for Research on Aging in 1987, Robert Pfleger Award for Medical Research in 1988, Feldberg Prize for Anglo-German Scientific Exchange in 1989, Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Disease Research in 1990, Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for Medical Research in 1991, IPSEN Foundation Prize in 1991, Max Planck Prize for International Scientific Collaboration in 1991, and Klaus-Joachim Zulch Prize for Neurology in 1995. He was also awarded an honoris causa degree in Medicine from Kuopio University, Finland in 1996 and the Windermere Traveling Professorship at Melbourne in 1997. He is a Member of the Heidelberg Academy for Humanities and Natural Sciences and Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldia in Halle and corresponding member of the Gottenger Academy for Sciences and Natural Sciences.

Professors Beyreuther and Masters have identified a protein known as 13A4 that is a major component of the amyloid plaques and have shown that a gene on chromosome 21 encodes for this protein which is part of a lamer protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP). They later studied the regulation of the synthesis and function of APP and its ability to bind to metallic ions. They hypothesized that the abnormal accumulation of pA4 protein underlies the neuronal changes that lead not only to Alzheimer’s disease but also to other degenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Their research has opened the way to the rational development of novel drugs that can interfere with these pathological processes in hopes of offering some chance of limiting or ameliorating these devastating diseases in the near future. They have published 124 joint papers relating to this field as well as numerous other individual papers.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

James Francis Gusella graduated with a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Ottawa in 1974 and an M.Sc. in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto in 1976. He obtained his Ph.D. (Biology) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1980 and has been working at Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital since then. He is currently a Professor of Genetics and the Bullard Professor of Neurogenetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Human Genetics Research (CHGR) and its Molecular Neurogenetics Unit at Harvard.

Professor Gusella is one of the most distinguished scholars of medical genetics worldwide. He made significant contributions to knowledge of neurodegenerative disorders in general and Huntington’s disease (HD) in particular. Gusella and his coworkers’ focused their research for many years on tracking down the precise cause of HD. Using reverse genetics for mapping the gene locus of HD on chromosome 4, they were able to identify the gene locus which encodes for Huntingtin, a protein associated with HD, and to elucidate the detailed structure of that gene. These discoveries galvanized both the neuroscience and human genetics communities and set off a torrent of similar studies on other disorders. Gusella and his group also applied their genetic mapping approach to many other disorders involving the nervous system.

Professor Gusella and his colleagues have published 292 papers as well as 78 reviews, symposium contributions and chapters in books. He holds several patents, and his accomplishments were recognized by more than 40 prizes and honors. These awards include, the Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for Medical Research in 1987, the National Health Council Award for Medical Research (to the Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Group) in 1993, the J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine in 1994. Professor Gusella is a fellow or member of major scientific societies and editorial boards and has given numerous lectures at major universities and scientific institutions worldwide.

Professor Gusella and his associates succeeded in mapping the gene locus for Huntington’s disease (BD) on the human chromosome 4. Ten years later he identified the gene locus which encodes for the protein that he called Huntingtin. This seminal discovery enabled him to lead a major collaborative investigation that has culminated in the unraveling of the detailed structure of the HD gene and the expanded CAG repeats that underlie the neurodegenerative changes that characterize this condition. This work has made possible the prenatal and presymptomatic testing of individuals which, in turn, provides the opportunity for genetic counseling in families with a history of BD. Subsequently Professor Gusella and his team were able to identify the chromosomal localization of genes involved in two other neurodegenerative conditions, Alzheimer’s disease (on chromosomes 21 and 14) and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (on chromosome 21).

He and his team are now developing animal models in which to investigate further HD and other hereditary neurodegenerative conditions. In parallel with this pioneering work Professor Gusella has made an outstanding contribution to the training of large numbers of research workers and his laboratory has acquired a unique international reputation as a focus for neurobiological research.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Colin Masters obtained a bachelor’s degree in physiology (First Class Honors) in 1967, an M.B.B.S. and an M.D. in medical neuropathology from the University of Australia in 1970 and 1977, respectively. After graduation from medical school, he served at the Royal Perth Hospital as a research fellow in the Department of Pathology at the University of West Australia and a Resident at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. He spent four years as a research fellow at the Department of Neuropathology in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. and as a visiting scientist at the NIH Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies in Bethesda, MD. Between 1980-1981, he was a Visiting Professor and Humboldt Fellow in Neurobiology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and for the next 7 years, he was a research fellow at the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. In 1989, he was appointed as a Professor and Head of Pathology at the University of Melbourne, and in 1999, he served as an Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Britain, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia, Australian Academy of Science and Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. 

Professor Masters is widely regarded as the most eminent neuroscientist in Australia and one of the world’s foremost experts on neurodegenerative disorders. His interest in neurological diseases dates back to the 1960’s when he was still a medical student. For the next 30 years, he dedicated his research to the study of the nature and pathology of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases (such as Cruetzfeldt Jakob disease, Kuru and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome). In collaboration with Konrad Beyreuther of Heidelberg University, he studied the nature, structure, function and metabolism of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease. Masters current research focuses on identifying pathways through which environmental and genetic factors can operate to cause this disease.

Professor Masters received numerous other awards including the Presidential Award from the International Association of Gerontology in 1987, the Potamkin Prize from the American Academy of Neurology in 1990, and the Max Planck Research Award in 1991.

Professors Masters and Beyreuther have identified a protein known as 13A4 that is a major component of the amyloid plaques and have shown that a gene on chromosome 21 encodes for this protein which is part of a lamer protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP). They later studied the regulation of the synthesis and function of APP and its ability to bind to metallic ions. They hypothesized that the abnormal accumulation of pA4 protein underlies the neuronal changes that lead not only to Alzheimer’s disease but also to other degenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Their research opened the way to the rational development of novel drugs that can interfere with these pathological processes some chance of limiting or ameliorating these devastating diseases in the future. Professors Masters and Beyreuther have published 124 joint papers relating to this field as well as numerous other individual papers.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Tetsuro Fujiwara obtained an M.D. from Iwate Medical University in 1956 and D.M.Sc. from Tohoku University School of Medicine in 1961. Fujiwara began his career as an assistant at Tohoku University hospital in 1961. Between 1962-1964, he went on a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), then as a research assistant in pediatrics (1966-1969) at UCLA. In 1970, he was appointed an Associate Professor at Akita University School of Medicine in Morioka, and in 1981, he became a Professor and the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Iwate Medical University in Marioka. 

Professor Fujiwara’s interest in neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), associated with the so-called “hyaline membrane disease,” started from the early years of his career. This disease was the most frequent cause of death of newborn babies, accounting for hundreds of thousands of deaths annually worldwide. Over a period of 15 years, he carried out joint physiologic and biochemical studies with Professor Forrest H. Adams at UCLA on premature animals and premature infants, which confirmed that the fundamental problem in RDS was the lack of a material known as “surfactant” in the lungs of premature babies. Without this material, a newborn baby could not breathe normally at birth, and must be provided with the surfactant as soon as possible, if there was to be any chance for its survival.

After initial studies with natural surfactant extracted from animals, Fujiwara developed an effective synthetic surfactant for surfactant replacement therapy in premature infants with RDS. Subsequent clinical studies by Fujiwara and his group confirmed the value of synthetic pulmonary surfactant therapy in restoring mechanical properties of the lungs, thereby leading to a marked improvement in gas exchange and oxygenation. The group also developed the “microtubule test” for prediction of RDS based on testing the amniotic fluid from the mother or gastric aspirate from the neonate.

Professor Fujiwara authored and co-authored hundreds of research papers and more than 90 books. He received the Japan Medical Association Award for Promotion of Medical Research in 1981, the Japanese Pediatric Society Prize, and the Nippon Culture Award in 1987. He is a member of several medical and scientific societies, including: the Japanese Pediatric Society, the Japan Society of Neonatology, the Japan Medical Association and the Japan Medical Society for Biological Interface. He is also an Honorary Member of the Italian Society of Prenatal Medicine, Advisor to the International Pediatric Society and Member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Pediatrics.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Bengt Robertson studied medicine at the Karolinska Institute in 1960, followed in 1968 by a Ph.D. degree on the intrapulmonary arterial pattern during normal infancy and in the transposition of great arteries in 1968. He became Docent in Pathology at the Karolinska Institute in the same year and served for many years as a consultant in pediatric pathology at St. Göran’s Hospital and an acting Professor of Pediatric Pathology at Karolinska Institute. From 1974 until his retirement in 2002, he was the Director of the Experimental Perinatal Pathology in the Department of Women and Child Health at the Karolinska Institute.

Professor Robertson carried out seminal studies into the etiology, prevention, and treatment of the neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), a major cause of death in premature infants. Using animal models, he carried out pioneering research on the physiology and pathophysiology of the respiratory tract as it relates to RDS in premature infants. His team was among the first to show that RDS could be prevented by introducing surfactants into the upper airways prior to the onset of breathing. Subsequently, they established the curative value of surfactant therapy in human premature infants.

Professor Robertson published more than 200 papers and 100 review articles in addition to numerous abstracts and letters, and several books in his specialty, including Pulmonary Surfactant: From Molecular Biology to Clinical Practice and Surfactant Therapy for Lung Disease. He was a member of several societies of medicine, neonatal medicine and pediatric research and the recipient of many awards. His honors include: an Honorary Membership of the Italian Society of Perinatal Medicine, a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and Hilda and Alfred Eriksson’s Prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1988.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Michael Gimbrone Jr. received his B.A. in Zoology from Cornell University and M.D. from Harvard Medical School. After completing an Internship in Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a Research Fellowship at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston, he joined the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He then pursued residency training in Pathology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston in 1974. He joined Harvard Medical School in 1975 and is currently the Elsie T. Friedman Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology and Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Professor Gimbrone’s outstanding contributions to the field of vascular biology, particularly the biology of vascular inflammation, have established the conceptual framework for understanding the mechanistic role of the endothelial lining of the cardiovascular system in diseases such as atherosclerosis and its complications– heart attack and stroke. He pioneered the growth of human vascular endothelial cells in vitro and was the first to show that endothelial cells produce prostaglandins and other mediators that influence the function of blood platelets and leukocytes. He also established the paradigm of endothelial activation by pro-inflammatory cytokines and discovered inducible endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecules that are important in inflammation and atherogenesis. His laboratory also identified the first biomechanically activated “shear stress-response element” in the promoter of a human gene, and applied high-throughput genomic analyses to identify “atheroprotective genes” that appear to confer resistance to pro-inflammatory stimuli and the development of atherosclerotic lesions in the cardiovascular system. These seminal studies point the way to new methods for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of vascular disease.

Gimbrone’s studies appeared in more than 250 publications, reviews and book chapters. He received many other prizes including: the Warner Lambert/Parke Davis Award in Experimental Pathology, the American Heart Association Basic Research Prize, the MERIT Award from the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the Pasarow Foundation Award in Cardiovascular Disease, the J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cardiovascular Research.

Professor Gimbrone Jr. has an impressive list of visiting professorships and lectureships in the U.S.A., Europe and Japan, memberships of editorial boards of leading medical journals, and election to prestigious institutions such as the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a past President of the American Society for Investigative Pathology and founding President of the North American Vascular Biology Organization.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.