Canadians win Lasker prize for medical research

Two Canadian scientists who first identified stem cells have won prestigious awards from an American medical research foundation. The $50,000 US prizes from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation -- to be presented Friday in New York -- were announced Saturday.

Ernest McCulloch and James Till of the Ontario Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto shared the prize for basic medical research for their pioneering identification of a stem cell. The Lasker Foundation said their work set the stage for today's stem cell research.

Stem cells can give rise to specialized cell types, and scientists are studying them in hopes of creating tissue to treat diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's.

By the early 1970s, McCulloch and Till showed clearly that a single type of bone marrow stem cell could create red cells, white cells and platelets. Their work explained the effect of bone marrow transplantation, used to treat people with leukemia or other blood cancers.

Other Lasker Prizes

The Lasker prize for clinical medical research will be shared by two scientists from the United Kingdom, Sir Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester and Sir Edwin Southern of Oxford University.

Jeffreys discovered in 1984 that individuals' DNA differed in particular sites, where the chemical sequence that makes up the genetic code exhibited variable numbers of repeats. That meant a DNA sample could be linked to the person it came from, a process now used in court cases and for identification of victims of mass disasters. He also showed that people inherit the identifying signals from their parents.

The foundation said: "Such 'genetic fingerprinting' ... has helped solve crimes, settle paternity and immigration disputes, establish the bases of inherited diseases, enhance transplantation biology, save endangered species, establish human origins and migrations and advance countless other beneficial endeavours."

In the mid-1970s, Southern devised a now-standard lab technique that allows scientists to detect specific bits of genetic code within an organism's overall DNA. Jeffreys used it in his work, and it played a crucial role in mapping the human genome, the foundation said.

The Lasker public service award, which carries no honorarium, will be presented to Nancy Brinker, founder and president of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The foundation said Brinker has "created one of the world's great foundations devoted to fighting breast cancer and dramatically increased public awareness about this devastating disease."