Prizes abound for the most skillful of scientists, but a few stand out as particularly significant ones. The Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, which honors top biomedical researchers, is one of those prizes.
And today, before the sun rose over Stanford University, Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, was awarded the 2015 Albany Prize for his pioneering work in optogenetics. He will share the $500,000 cash award with Sunney Xie, PhD, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.
Deisseroth commented in our release:
It's a great honor to receive this prize. The recognition of optogenetics is not only a testament to the creativity and vigor of everyone in the lab and our collaborators over the last decade or more, but also a signal to the world beyond the scientific community regarding the importance of basic science research to understanding the biology of health and disease."
Optogenetics is a technique that enables researchers to control neurons in living animals.
The Albany Prize was founded in 2000 with a $50 million gift from New York philanthropist Marty Silverman. It is the United States' highest value prize in medicine and biomedical research.
Previously: New York Times profiles Stanford's Karl Deisseroth and his work in optogenetics, An in-depth look at the career of Stanford's Karl Deisseroth, "a major name in science" and Optogenetics: Offering new insights into brain disorders
Photo by Lee Abel
