The Albany Prize Awarded to Biochemist Lynne Maquat
One of the largest and most distinguished prizes in medicine in the United States, the was awarded to Lynne E. Maquat, PhD, director of the Center for RNA Biology at the University of Rochester. Maquat and co-winners Howard Y. Chang, MD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine, and Adrian R. Krainer, PhD, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, were honored for their research on RNA mechanisms that contribute to a wide range of diseases, including spinal muscular atrophy, cancers, and autoimmune disorders. Their collective body of work has laid the foundation for the development of treatments targeting conditions that can鈥檛 be corrected with conventional drugs.
The J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Maquat has spent her career deciphering the many roles that RNA plays in sickness and in health and is well known for her discovery of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay or NMD.
One of the major surveillance systems in the body, NMD protects against innate mistakes in gene expression by targeting and eliminating deleterious mRNAs that could lead to the production of incomplete and potentially toxic proteins that can cause disease. Thanks to more than 40 years of research by Maquat and others, scientists are beginning to put the mechanistic findings related to NMD to use to design new therapies.
鈥淟ynne鈥檚 scientific career is nothing short of outstanding and her contributions have brought RNA biology to the leading edge of medicine,鈥� said David C. Linehan, MD, CEO of the 麻豆视频 and dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. 鈥淭his award acknowledges her exceptional ability to discover, innovate and push the limits of scientific understanding, and we鈥檙e extremely proud that her efforts are being acknowledged with this major honor."
The Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research has been awarded annually since 2001 to recognize extraordinary contributions to improving health while promoting novel biomedical research. Recipients are nominated by their peers and ten winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. Past awardees, including influential figures like former director of the National Institutes of Health Anthony Fauci, MD, and CRISPR pioneers Jennifer Doudna, PhD, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD, have made major contributions to health and medicine that have had national and international impact.
鈥淟ynne鈥檚 groundbreaking research on nonsense-mediated mRNA decay serves as the cornerstone of an ever-expanding field dedicated to mRNA monitoring and regulation鈥攁n area that is rapidly changing the way we think about and develop new therapies," said Steve Dewhurst, PhD, vice president for Research at the University of Rochester. 鈥淭he success of the COVID-19 vaccines confirmed that mRNA-based technologies can be absolutely transformative, and Lynne鈥檚 work is indispensable for scientists and companies developing RNA based therapeutics.鈥�
Maquat also holds appointments in Pediatrics and Oncology and is a member of the Wilmot Cancer Institute at the 麻豆视频. She is the founding director of the Graduate Women in Science program at the University of Rochester.
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