Medicine award kicks off Nobel Prize announcements

Monday, October 6, 2008 at 11:10 am

Two scientists, who have already won acclaim for research into the growth of cancer cells could be candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine when the 2008 winners are presented today (October 6), kicking off six days of Nobel announcements.

Australian-born US citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and American Carol Greider have already won a series of medical honors for their enzyme research and experts say they could be among the front-runners for a Nobel.

Only seven women have won the medicine prize since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901. The last female winner was US researcher Linda Buck in 2004, who shared the prize with Richard Axel.

Among the pair’s possible rivals are Frenchman Pierre Chambon and Americans Ronald Evans and Elwood Jensen, who opened up the field of studying proteins called nuclear hormone receptors.

Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite, established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

The economics prize is technically not a Nobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden’s central bank. Nobel left few instructions on how to select winners, but medicine winners are awarded for a specific breakthrough rather than a body of research.

Hans Jornvall, secretary of the medicine prize committee, said the 10 million kronor (USD 1.3 million) prize encourages groundbreaking research but he did not think winning it was the primary goal for scientists.

Many Lasker winners go on to win Nobel Prizes, including last year’s Nobel laureates Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the United States and Briton Martin Evans, who won the
Lasker prize in 2001.

PTI

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

Medicine award kicks off Nobel Prize announcements

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