The awards, honoring basic medical research, clinical research and special achievement, each come with a $250,000 prize and a nice omen: 87 Lasker laureates have also won Nobel Prizes. Those tumors “were behaving like they were constantly starved of oxygen,” Dr. Kaelin said. One such researcher was Dr. Sofia, chief scientific officer at the pharmaceutical company Arbutus Biopharma. PhotoIn 2005, Dr. Sofia had just joined another company, called Pharmasset, which wanted to create a new hepatitis C drug. He created a “slippery” coat for the compound that allowed it to easily enter liver cells.

Source: New York Times September 13, 2016 03:56 UTC