Biography
Ronald Mark Evans (born April 17, 1949 in Los Angeles , California ) is an American Biologist, Professor and Head of the Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory, and the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies [ 1 ] in La Jolla, California and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Ronald M. Evans is known for his original discoveries of nuclear hormone receptors (NR), a special class of transcriptional factor, and the elucidation of their universal mechanism of action, a process that governs how lipophilic hormones and drugs regulate virtually every developmental and metabolic pathway in animals and humans. Nowadays, NRs are among the most widely investigated group of pharmaceutical targets in the world, already yielding benefits in drug discovery for cancer, muscular dystrophies, osteoporosis, type II diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. [ 2 ] His current research focuses on the function of nuclear hormone signaling and their function in metabolism and cancer. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] He received his Bachelor of Science and PhD (1974) from UCLA , followed by a postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University with James E. Darnell . [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] He became a faculty member at the Salk Institute in 1978 and an adjunct professor in Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience at UCSD (1985, 1989, 1995). He was named March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Neurobiology at the Salk Institute in 1998. His work on nuclear receptors was well recognized, thus he is a recipient of more than 40 nationally or internationally acclaimed awards and honors. In 2003 he was awarded the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology . He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2004). He is also recipient of the Harvey Prize (2006), the Gairdner Foundation International Award (2006), the Albany Medical Center Prize (2007), the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2012) and the Louisa Gross Horwi
About the Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."
Quick Facts
- Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
- Added: 2026-02-07
- Source: Wikipedia
- Established: 1946
- Presented by: Lasker Foundation