Innovation is worth it!
Does a scientist from the academic or industrial world carry out pioneering research into innovative medical therapies? Then he/she may have a chance to win the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for biomedical research. Johnson & Johnson will now award this prestigious Prize with a value of 100,000 USD every year (initially every two years).
What are the objectives? :
- Honor Dr. Paul (1926-2003), the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica, who has no less than eighty innovative drugs to his name.
- Stimulate and reward the passion and creativity of scientists with a strong motivation to innovate.
Winners
The first award (2006) went to Dr. Craig Mello, professor in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester (USA). He was awarded the prize for his discovery of the RNA interference technique, which is used to establish which genes play a role in diseases such as cancer. Dr. Mello also won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in the same year.
The winning duo in 2008 consisted of Prof. Marc Feldmann and emeritus Prof. Sir Ravinder Maini from the London Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College. They received the prize for their contribution to the discovery of the tumor necrosis factor-alfa, an effective therapeutic target in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases.
In 2009, the prize was awarded to Dr. Axel Ullrich, Director of the Molecular Biology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, for his molecular biological pioneering work in the development of therapies against diabetes and cancer.
On September 9, 2010, Johnson & Johnson recognized Dr. Erik De Clercq, M.D., Professor Emeritus, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Leuven, Belgium, and Dr Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, with the Dr Paul Janssen Prize for their Pioneering Work in Understanding and Combating HIV/AIDS.
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