Cell Science Saluted

TAYLOR PRIZE SALUTES CELL SCIENCE By Peter Geigen-Miller London Free Press November 6, 2000
The three newest winners of the of the J. Allyn Taylor prize in medicine work in an area of cell science that holds promise for breakthrough treatments of cancer, heart disease and other serious diseases.
The prestigious international prizes, awarded annually by the John P. Robarts Research Institute in London, honor major achievements, in areas of research in which Robarts scientists also are working.
This year's winners are Tony Hunter, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, Anthony Pawson, a professor at the University of Toronto, and Joseph Schlessinger, professor and chairperson of pharmacology at New York University Medical Center in New York.
The three scientists have won renown for their pioneering work an the field of signal transduction - how information is relayed within and between cells. Malfunctions in this communications process have been linked to cancer, diseases of the heart and circulation system, diabetes, neurological and immune system disorders and other serious ailments.
Scientists are working to understand how normal cell signaling works and how abnormal signals lead to disease. The three Taylor winners are credited with major advances in the field, arriving at similar understandings by different routes.
Knowing how the processes work will allow researchers to develop new drugs and treatments to repair faulty signals. Some new drugs could be on the market by 2003, Schlessinger said. Down the road is the promise of new therapies that could extend the lives of some cancer patients to 15 or 20 years from the two years or less allowed by today's treatments, he said.
The Taylor prizes, which come with a $10,000 cheque for each of the winners, a Taylor medallion and a certificate of merit, were presented last night during a dinner at the Great Hall in Somerville House on the University of Western Ontario campus.