Five scientists will share $250,000 awards in medical research from the Lasker Foundation for their work on stem cells and treatment of leukemia.
The foundation will honor the recipients at a ceremony in New York on October 2. Many Lasker honorees go on to win Nobel Prizes, according to the foundation.
John Gurdon of the University of Cambridge and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University will be recognized for their discoveries on the process through which specialized adult cells become stem cells. They will receive the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
Brian J. Druker of Oregon Health & Science University, Nicholas B. Lydon, formerly of Novartis, and Charles L. Sawyers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will receive the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for developing a drug that treats chronic myeloid leukemia.
In addition, the mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg, will be honored with a public-service award for fighting tobacco use and unhealthy food consumption in the city.
The Lasker Foundation, which has presented the prizes since 1946, was started in 1942 by an advertising executive, Albert Lasker, and his wife, the philanthropist Mary Lasker.
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