Statement By Research!America President And CEO Mary Woolley On 2019 Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine
Research!America applauds the 2019 Nobel awardees in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries on the fundamental usage of oxygen by cells. The awardees – William Kaelin, Jr. MD at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (a Research!America alliance member), Harvard Medical School, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1998; Sir Peter Ratcliffe from the University of Oxford and the Francis Crick Institute; and Gregg Semenza, MD, PhD of Johns Hopkins University (also a Research!America alliance member). The team received a Lasker award in 2016 for basic medical research.
The trio’s work on cell adaptability reveals “how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” The Nobel Prize committee further said, “The discoveries made by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have fundamental importance for physiology and have paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer, and many other diseases.”
Dr. Kaelin has received funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1990. Dr. Semenza has received funding from NIH since 1988.
The Nobel announcements highlight the importance of sustained federal investments in basic research as a catalyst for new discoveries that benefit us all.