Newport, RI - September 26, 2021 - David Baltimore, President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, and a 2017 Hope Funds for Cancer Research Honoree, was recently honored by the Lasker Foundation for leadership in biology and scientific mentorship.
The 2021 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science was presented to Dr. Baltimore in recognition of “five decades of work in virology, immunology, and cancer; and his visionary academic leadership at multiple institutions and his mentoring of trainees who have later become prominent scientists in their fields.”
The Lasker Awards, considered America's highest and most distinguished biomedical research honors, recognize the contributions of researchers, clinician scientists, and public servants who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of disease, and were presented, virtually, on September 24th. The last time the Lasker Foundation presented the Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science was in 2018, to Joan A. Steitz, who is also a previous Hope Funds for Cancer Research Award of Excellence in Basic Science recipient.
"Hope Funds congratulates Dr. Baltimore on this prestigious and well-deserved honor," said Leah Rush Cann, Chair of the Hope Funds Executive Committee. "We are delighted that another Hope Funds Honoree has been recognized with the Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award."
Dr. Baltimore joins a list of fellow Hope Funds honorees who are prior Lasker Award recipients: James Allison, PhD, Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, James Darnell, MD, Brian Druker, MD, Napoleon Ferrara, MD, Harold Freeman, MD, James F. Holland, MD, Sir Paul Nurse, PhD, Robert Roeder, PhD, Janet Rowley, MD, Phillip Sharp, PhD, Charles Sawyers, MD, and Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD.
About David Baltimore, PhD
David Baltimore is an American biologist who received the 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is currently President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he served as president from 1997 to 2006. He served as president of Rockefeller University from 1990 to 1991 and is a founder and former Director of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at MIT. Dr. Baltimore was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received a number of awards, including the US National Medal of Science in 1999. Dr. Baltimore was the recipient of the Hope Funds for Cancer Research’s 2017 Award of Excellence in Basic Science.
About the Lasker Awards
For 76 years, the Lasker Awards, America's most prestigious biomedical research awards, have recognized the contributions of leaders who made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of human disease. Recipients of the Lasker Medical Research Awards are selected by a distinguished international jury chaired by Joseph L. Goldstein, recipient of the 1985 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Eighty-seven Lasker laureates have received the Nobel Prize, including 40 in the last three decades. More details on the Lasker Award recipients, the full citations for each award category, video interviews and photos of the awardees, and additional information on the foundation are available at the Lasker Foundation website.
About Hope Funds for Cancer Research
Hope Funds for Cancer Research was formed in 2006 to establish a funding vehicle that would take a rational scientific, medical, and investment approach to making grants for the most innovative and promising research efforts to address the most difficult-to-treat cancers, including pancreatic, lung, liver, sarcomas, esophageal, brain, gastric, renal and ovarian cancers, as well as rare leukemias, lymphomas and MDS. These cancers are insidiously aggressive illnesses that kill most of their victims within months, even with aggressive chemotherapy. The Trustees of the Hope Funds for Cancer Research believe that funding young, innovative researchers will lead to breakthroughs in these areas and increase life expectancy for those with these types of cancers. The Hope Funds for Cancer Research is a 509 (a)(1) charity under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service's code.
For additional information about the organization, please visit www.hope-funds.org or call (401) 847-3286.
Hope Funds for Cancer Research: Advancing innovative research in understudied cancers
Hope Funds for Cancer Research is an independent and unaffiliated non-profit organization
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