Biography
Erkki Ruoslahti (born 16 February 1940 in Imatra , Finland ) is a cancer researcher and distinguished professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute . [ 1 ] He moved from Finland to the United States in 1976. [ 2 ] Ruoslahti made seminal contributions to biology of extracellular matrix and its receptors. [ 3 ] He was one of the discoverers of fibronectin , an adhesion molecule and component of extracellular matrices, and he subsequently identified and cloned a number of other extracellular matrix components and adhesion molecules. In 1984, he identified the sequence within fibronectin that mediates cell attachment, called RGD for the amino acids of which it's composed, [ 4 ] and isolated the cellular receptors that bind that sequence, now known as integrins. [ 5 ] The RGD discovery has led to the development of drugs for vascular thrombosis and cancer, among other diseases. [ 6 ] Ruoslahti currently studies specific marker molecules in blood vessels. He introduced the concept of vascular "zip codes," the idea that each tissue bears molecular signatures that can be targeted by affinity ligands, and used in vivo peptide phage display to prove the concept and develop numerous tumor-homing peptides. [ 7 ]
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