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The Albany Prize Awarded to Biochemist Lynne Maquat

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

One of the largest and most distinguished prizes in medicine in the United States, the 2024 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research 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’t 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.

“Lynne’s scientific career is nothing short of outstanding and her contributions have brought RNA biology to the leading edge of medicine,” said David C. Linehan, MD, CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center and dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “This award acknowledges her exceptional ability to discover, innovate and push the limits of scientific understanding, and we’re 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.

“Lynne’s groundbreaking research on nonsense-mediated mRNA decay serves as the cornerstone of an ever-expanding field dedicated to mRNA monitoring and regulation—an 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. “The success of the COVID-19 vaccines confirmed that mRNA-based technologies can be absolutely transformative, and Lynne’s work is indispensable for scientists and companies developing RNA based therapeutics.”

Maquat also holds appointments in Pediatrics and Oncology and is a member of the Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is the founding director of the Graduate Women in Science program at the University of Rochester.

Lynne Maquat Receives 2024 Dr. Paul Janssen Award

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Lynne E. Maquat, Ph.D., a mechanistic biochemist and director of the University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology, is the winner of 2024 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. Honored for her fundamental discoveries about RNA decay in the context of human diseases, she shares the award with Alexander Varshavsky, Ph.D., of the California Institute of Technology, who is honored for his research on regulated degradation of proteins.

Established by Johnson & Johnson in 2004, the award is a tribute to Dr. Paul Janssen, an accomplished and passionate researcher who helped save millions of lives through his contribution to the discovery and development of more than 80 medicines. Since its inception, the award has recognized 24 exceptional scientists, eight of whom have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

Maquat discovered a cellular quality control mechanism known as nonsense-mediated mRNA decay or NMD. One of the major surveillance systems in the body, NMD protects against mistakes in gene expression by targeting and eliminating deleterious mRNAs that could lead to the production of incomplete and potentially toxic proteins. NMD plays a role in many disorders, including inherited diseases like cystic fibrosis and different types of cancer.

Maquat and Varshavsky were chosen by an independent selection committee of the world’s most renowned scientists.