 | Dr. Richard Lifton |
Dr. Richard Lifton, a Yale School of Medicine geneticist and internationally
known expert on hypertension, has received the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences
for discovering genes that cause many forms of high and low blood pressure.
T H I S
Geneticist cited for research on hypertension
The prize recognizes contributions that have opened new fields of research or
have advanced novel concepts or their applications in a particular biomedical
discipline. It includes a $35,000 grant.
Lifton, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Sterling Professor
and chair of genetics, identified 10 genes that cause very high blood pressure
and 10 genes that cause very low blood pressure. He also found that these genes
are involved in the regulation of salt balance by the kidney.
“Dr. Lifton’s findings highlight the importance of dietary salt in
the causation of hypertension, a major risk factor in cardiovascular disease,
which is the leading cause of death worldwide,” said Dr. Günter Blobel,
chair of the awards jury.
Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of Yale School of Medicine, said: “Lifton’s
research has demonstrated unequivocally the importance of renal salt handling
in the regulation of blood pressure. While hypertension can be due to over constriction
of blood vessels or abnormal salt handling by the kidney, Lifton has found in
multiple genetic causes of high and low blood pressure that the etiology resides
in the kidney. These findings have settled a controversy that persisted for much
of the 20th century.”
Lifton joins a distinguished roster of past Wiley Award recipients, among them
Nobel Prize-winning scientists Andrew Fire, Craig Mello and Robert Horvitz. Last
year Dr. Arthur Horwich, also of Yale School of Medicine, and F. Ulrich Hartl,
director at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, were jointly awarded the
Wiley Prize for detailing the molecular machinery that guides proteins into their
proper functional shape, work that is important in research on Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s diseases.
The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences recognizes contributions that have opened
new fields of research or have advanced novel concepts or their applications
in a particular biomedical discipline. It honors a specific contribution or a
series of contributions that demonstrate significant leadership and innovation.
The Wiley Foundation and the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences were established
in 2001 by global publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. Founded in 1807, Wiley
publishes a wide range of products, services and resources, in print and online,
including nonfiction books, journals, encyclopedias, textbooks, and integrated
learning systems for professionals, consumers, scientists, scholars teachers,
undergraduate and graduate students, and lifelong learners.
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