C. Ronald Kahn, the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief academic officer and senior investigator at Joslin Diabetes Center, is one of two recipients of the Wolf Prize in Medicine in recognition of his research in insulin signaling.
Awarded by the Wolf Foundation, the Wolf Prize is considered among the most prestigious honors in medicine, after the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award. The prize honors scientists who have had a significant impact in scientific research and demonstrated exceptional talent and accomplishments in their field.
The award will be presented this June in Jerusalem by the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin. Kahn will share this year’s Wolf Prize with Lewis Cantley, professor of cancer biology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Cantley is being honored for his discovery of phosphoinositide-3 kinases and their roles in physiology and disease.
Kahn was recognized for his pioneering studies defining insulin signaling and its alterations in disease. This work has been essential to understanding the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.
His finding that the insulin receptor transmits insulin signals through activation of an intrinsic protein tyrosine kinase was the first step in unraveling the insulin-signaling cascade. These studies formed the basis of our present knowledge of the pathogenesis of insulin resistance.
In concurrent studies, Kahn demonstrated that insulin resistance precedes and leads to type 2 diabetes. He was also the first to define the important role of insulin action in unexpected tissues such as brain, vascular endothelial cells and pancreatic beta cells, linking insulin resistance to development of Alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis, as well as diabetes.
Leonard Zon, the HMS Grousbeck Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, was named the recipient of the 20th annual Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics from the National Cancer Institute. The award is presented annually to a scientist who has made outstanding research contributions to the field of cancer genetics.
Zon is also professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at HMS, an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
A hematologist-oncologist, Zon is recognized internationally for his groundbreaking work in stem cell biology and cancer genetics. He pioneered the use of zebrafish for the study of human blood formation (hematopoiesis) and disease, including many types of cancer. Zon’s translational zebrafish research led to the discovery and development of two novel therapeutics now being evaluated in clinical trials of patients with leukemia and melanoma. His research is largely focused on better understanding the genetics of blood diseases, melanoma and other cancers and bringing that knowledge into the clinical setting for the benefit of patients suffering from these disorders.
Steven Rauch, HMS professor of otolaryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, has been recognized with a 2015 Champion of Vestibular Medicine Award by the Vestibular Disorders Association (VEDA).
Rauch is an otologist and researcher specializing in disorders of the ear and vestibular system, a complex network that relies on sensory inputs to maintain the body’s position and balance. As director of the Vestibular Division at Mass. Eye and Ear, he leads a team of otologists, neurologists and allied health care professionals in the investigation and management of balance and dizziness.
In addition to teaching and training students and physicians in the diagnosis and management of vestibular disorders, Rauch chairs a national multicenter clinical trial on sudden deafness supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
VEDA presents the award annually to medical professionals “who have had significant impact on increasing awareness of vestibular disorders,” said Cynthia Ryan, VEDA’s executive director, in a statement.
David Reich, professor of genetics at HMS, was featured as one of “Nature’s 10,” the journal’s picks for the 10 people around the world who made a difference in science in 2015.
Reich was selected for his contributions to the field of ancient genomics. He and his team have been working with new sequencing technologies to extract and analyze DNA from ancient bones in an attempt to better understand human history, investigating topics such as large-scale human migrations and the intermingling of ancient populations. This year, they began studying ancient skeletal remains by the hundreds at a genome-wide scale, revealing new insights into the spread of agriculture and Indo-European languages.
Laura Indolfi, HMS research fellow in medicine in David Ting’s laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and a biomedical entrepreneur, has been selected as a 2016 TED Fellow, joining a class of 21 change-makers from around the world who will share their ideas from the TED stage this February in Vancouver.
Founded in 2009, the TED Fellows program brings together young innovators who show outstanding achievement and exemplary character. Fellows attend and give a TED Talk at a TED or TEDGlobal conference; participate in pre-conference workshops and activities; and partake in ongoing coaching, mentoring and networking opportunities.
