In other categories, the Basic Research Award was given to DeepMind’s AlphaFold program, which uses machine learning to predict protein folding, stimulating new pathways for drug discovery. The Special Achievement Award was given to Dutch scientist Piet Borst for his 50-year career in medical research, including key discoveries in understanding how parasites evade the immune system and the genetic causes of resistance to certain chemotherapies.
Key takeaways:
- The Lasker Foundation awarded its annual $250,000 award for Clinical Medical Research to Dr. James Fujimoto, David Huang, and Eric Swanson for their invention of optical coherence tomography (OCT), a method of imaging the retina and other tissues in the eye.
- OCT has grown to being a nearly $2 billion market and is routinely used by doctors to diagnose diseases such as glaucoma, diabetes-related vision impairment and even coronary artery disease.
- DeepMind’s AlphaFold program, which uses machine learning to predict the complicated chemistry of how proteins fold into themselves, was awarded the Lasker Award for Basic Research.
- The Lasker Foundation's Special Achievement Award was given to Dutch scientist Piet Borst for his 50-year career in medical research, particularly his work in understanding how parasites evade the immune system and the genetic causes for resistance to certain chemotherapies.