UCSF researcher wins Lasker Award, known as the 'American Nobel'

A UCSF professor won this year's coveted Lasker Award for basic medical research with a Japanese scientist for discovering a cellular quality-control system in the human body that protects against harmful misshapen proteins that can lead to disease.

Peter Walter, UCSF professor of biochemistry and biophysics, was honored for his work into how the nuclei of cells make sure proteins, which are folded into three-dimensional shapes, are able to detect those that are misshapen or misfolded.

The Lasker Awards, announced Monday, are often referred to as the "American Nobels" because a large number of past winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

Walter, reached by cell phone shortly after landing in Brussels on Monday, said he was thrilled by the award.

"The goal is to figure out how things work, but it's wonderful that people recognize it," he said. "There are so many people who've contributed to this - all wonderful grad students and postdoctoral fellows ... I'll accept this honor on their behalf."

Walter, 59, a native of West Berlin who joined the UCSF faculty in 1983 and lives in San Francisco, shares the spotlight with Katzutoshi Mori, 56, of Kyoto University. The two molecular scientists worked independently, but their research, which is continuing, both overlaps and complements each other's.

Their work focuses on the processes and communication that take place within a cell during the protein-folding process. Sometimes the quality-control system can become overwhelmed and back up.

"It's like a factory line. You have machines involved in folding," Walter said. "If the demand is higher than the capacity of the system, you need to readjust, you need more capacity in the factory of proteins."

When that readjustment doesn't occur, the process goes awry, and the cells with the defects can either fix themselves or self-destruct, Walter said.

Understanding the malfunctioning process and how cells respond has led to greater knowledge of certain diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, in which mis-folded proteins lead to the destruction of the eye's retinal cells, and other diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and cancer. Walter said he hopes that knowledge will eventually translate into treatments.

Read the rest here:
UCSF researcher wins Lasker Award, known as the 'American Nobel'