Current issue
Bob Roeder wins “American
Nobel”
Rockefeller biochemist honored with Lasker
Award for research on DNA transcription
BY JOSEPH BONNER
The second most prestigious prize in science was
presented to Rockefeller’s Robert G. Roeder last Friday for his more
than three decades of research into the protein machines responsible for
reading human genes. Roeder received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic
Medical Research at a luncheon ceremony at the Pierre Hotel in New York
City.
Roeder is the 19th scientist associated with
Rockefeller to be honored with the Lasker Award, a prize widely regarded as
the “American Nobel.” Since the Lasker Awards were first
presented in 1945, 47 percent of Basic Lasker Award winners have gone on to
win the Nobel Prize while 37 percent of all Nobel Prize winners have
received Lasker Awards. Six of 22 Nobel Prize winners associated with
Rockefeller have also won a Lasker.
“Virtually all of what we know about gene
activation and its regulation in animal cells can be traced back to Bob
Roeder’s seminal studies,” says Rockefeller University’s
new president, Paul Nurse.
The Lasker is awarded each September to honor
outstanding contributions to basic and clinical medical research. The other
scientists receiving Lasker Awards at Friday’s ceremony were Marc
Feldman and Ravinder N. Maini of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at
Imperial College London; they share the Lasker Award for Clinical Medical
Research for their discovery of anti-TNF therapy as an effective treatment
for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
In addition, actor Christopher Reeve was presented with
the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service in Support of Medical
Research and the Health Sciences.
Roeder, born in Boonville, Indiana in 1942, received
his B.A. summa cum laude in chemistry from Wabash College, his M.S. in chemistry from
the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the
University of Washington,
Seattle (his graduate studies were in the lab of William J. Rutter). He completed
postdoctoral work at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Baltimore.
He began his first faculty position at Washington University in St. Louis
in 1971.
Roeder came to Rockefeller in 1982 as professor and
head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. In 1985, he
was named the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor. He is also a member of
the Pels Family Center for Biochemistry and Structural Biology at
Rockefeller University.
“The Rockefeller University is a spectacular
place, an institution with much tradition and a record of outstanding
contributions to science and medicine,” says Roeder. “With its
primary emphasis on research, Rockefeller is truly the easiest place to do
science in an unimpeded fashion with high quality colleagues, graduate
students and postdocs.”
September 25, 2003
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