For his work for over 40 years on cellular receptors. His research has made possible the development of many drugs for various diseases such as Parkinson’s, hypertension and diabetes. The BBVA Foundation has awarded the ‘Frontiers of Biomedicine, ascertain in’ Robert J. Lefkowitz, a professor and researcher in the Department of Medicine, Duke University (USA).
This is the second edition of three awards that already are among the most important internationally by a variety of disciplines (Basic Sciences, Biomedicine, Climate Change, Development Cooperation …) covering and its total endowment ( 3.2 million per year). Each category is 400,000 euros correspond. In last year’s edition, the award was Dr. Joan Massague, a Spanish scientist active in the world most cited.On receiving the news of the award, Professor Lefkowitz said he was “tremendously excited. It takes more than 40 years researching the cellular receptors. In the seventies and defended the existence of specific receptors on cell membranes to hormones and drugs. A theory that, as acknowledged by the award, “generated considerable skepticism among the scientific class of the day. However, perhaps due to my youth, I thought that if I could create a model to isolate and study these receptors, could, among many other consequences, open up a whole new pathway in drug development.
As the jury noted, “Lefkowitz’s work has made possible treatments for cardiovascular diseases, such as beta blockers. These studies have also understand how drugs and hormones can lose their effect on patients with changes in these receptors. ” With this award, the scientific community recognizes “their discoveries of the seven-segment transmembrane receptor, the major receptor signaling system and the most versatile and accessible from the therapeutic point of view, and the general mechanism of their regulation.
The impact of his work
Drawing on his training as a cardiologist, began its work in identifying and studying the receptor for adrenaline to finally show, through biochemical analysis and structural biology, general principles that explain its operation. Today, more than 100 components listed in the receptor superfamily of seven transmembrane segments (7TM) have been identified in all types of body cells.
From a clinical standpoint, the importance of his research is supported by the high percentage, up to 50% of current drugs that are directed at these receptors. According to Lefkowitz, “no field of medicine that has not been impacted by this discovery. And it is meant that virtually every physiological process that occurs in the body, as is disease, is regulated by several Members of this superfamily of receptors. ”
His candidacy has been filed by the Department of Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and seconded by the University of Barcelona, the California Institute of Technology (United States), the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York (USA) and Rudolf Virchow Center Würzburg (Germany).
Tags: biomedicine, cellular receptors, drug development
