September 19, 2024
4 min read
Obesity-Drug Pioneers Win Prestigious Lasker Award for Medical Science
Three scientists are honored for developing a class of blockbuster weight-loss drugs. Is a Nobel prize on the way?
Three scientists involved in developing the blockbuster anti-obesity drugs that are currently changing the health-care landscape are among the winners of this year’s prestigious Lasker Awards. The prizes, which honour important advances in medical research, are often considered an indicator of whether a specific advance or scientist will win a Nobel Prize — and some are speculating that this could soon be the case for the weight-loss treatments.
Joel Habener, Svetlana Mojsov and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen each contributed to the creation of the popular anti-obesity drugs, which mimic a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), involved in lowering blood-sugar levels and controlling appetite. The trio, recognized with a Lasker in the clinical-research category, will share a US$250,000 prize.
Biomedical scientists are enthusiastic about the increasing recognition of GLP-1 research, which was initially aimed at treating diabetes. “I’ve been working on this for 30 years, and for a long time nobody cared,” says Randy Seeley, an obesity specialist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Over the last several years, the situation has changed so much. We now have therapies that are actually helping people.”
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