Albert Lasker
Basic Medical Research Award
Frank Dixon
Henry Kunkel
Roger Guillemin
Andrew Schally
Frank Dixon
For demonstrating, in a series of brilliant experimental studies with model systems in laboratory animals, that immunologic responses, which ordinarily serve to protect the individual, may actually cause injury and disease.
For these studies, Dr. Dixon was able to establish a relationship between wayward immunologic reactions and the development of tissue and organ pathology, which led to the concept of immune complex disease.
These discoveries enabled his students and colleagues subsequently to establish that in man, misguided immunologic responses, resulting in antigen-antibody complexes, can be the cause of kidney, cardiovascular and other diseases.
Dr. Dixon has also shown that chronic viral infections regularly lead to the formation of immune complexes and tissue injury, thus providing a possible causation for many of the presently unexplained immunologic diseases of man.
For Dr. Dixon's outstanding contributions to the creation of a new medical discipline, immunopathology—which constitutes a breakthrough in medicine that has illuminated the underlying mechanisms of an entire class of human disease—this 1975 Albert Lasker Medical Research Award is given.
Henry Kunkel
For basic contributions to our understanding of immunology and especially immunological mechanisms which are an underlying factor in certain human renal diseases, and in arthritis.
Concentrating on various disease states in man, Dr. Kunkel discovered that there is a wide variety of antibodies which react against the body's own tissues. In addition, he made the surprising finding that antibodies can develop which, by their interaction with the patient's own DNA, produce harmful complexes that can cause kidney disease.
His discovery that there is a variety of abnormal immune relationships in patients with rheumatoid arthritis has produced new leads towards the solution of rheumatic diseases.
For his leadership in the development of the rapidly expanding field of immunopathology, and for making one of the most important contributions in recent years to our understanding in the way in which deranged immune response can cause injury and disease, this 1975 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award is given.
Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally
For determination of the structure of hypothalamic hormones, their synthesis, and elucidation of their role in endocrine function—work which is considered the decisive physiological and biochemical evidence of neurohormones in mammals. Such research has established the fact that the pituitary gland and certain other glands of the endocrine system are regulated by the brain through the hypothalamus.
Dr. Guillemin identified and synthesized, from ovine hypothalami, the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), which stimulates the pituitary gland to secrete thyrotropin, which in turn activates the thyroid.
More recently, he has isolated, determined the structure, and synthesized somatostatin (SRIF), which inhibits the secretion of growth hormone from the pituitary and also regulates the secretion of insulin and glucagon by the pancreas. The role of somatostatin in controlling glucagon and insulin secretion may provide new insights into the nature and treatment of diabetes mellitus.
Dr. Schally identified and synthesized, from porcine hypothalami, the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). He subsequently discovered and synthesized a hormone called luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LH-RH). This hormone stimulates the release from the pituitary of both luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which in turn regulate male and female sex organs. This discovery has great implications in the field of human reproduction, and may lead to the development of both fertility and contraceptive compounds.
For expanding our knowledge of the interplay between the brain hypothalamus and the endocrine system, and the future possible clinical application of these discoveries in the treatment of both neural and endocrine diseases, this 1975 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award is given.