For many people, RNA entered the consciousness during the race to develop a COVID vaccine. Tuesday, three researchers who study RNA were awarded the annual Albany Prize at Albany Medical Center.
In 2000, the Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundation dedicated $50 million for the sole purpose of awarding the Albany Prize annually for 100 years with the intent to encourage and recognize extraordinary and sustained contributions to improving health care and promoting innovative biomedical research.
The criteria for the Albany Prize states that its recipients will have demonstrated significant outcomes that offer medical value of national or international importance.
This year’s winners are RNA researchers, each with a long list of accomplishments. Through their combined research they've solved complex puzzles that baffled doctors for decades.
Dr. Howard Chang directs the RNA medicine program at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. Chang led development of RNA and DNA mapping tools that are used today by thousands of laboratories worldwide.
"We now know that long non-coding RNAs represent maybe 60,000 different kinds of genes, a vast output of a part of the human genome. Our search also led us to invent new technologies such as ATAC seq that has greatly improved the speed and accuracy of finding changes in DNA sequence that matter in gene control, and that has led to an increased understanding of how both inherited and acquired differences in genes cause human disease. And indeed, detailed studies of long non-coding RNAs have led to therapies and diagnostic ideas that feature, I think, promising directions for both cancer and autoimmune diseases," Chang said.
Dr. Adrian Krainer is the Cancer Center Program co leader at Long Island's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His studies of the mechanisms and regulation of mRNA splicing have impacted the lives of thousands of children who suffer from the genetic neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy. He helped develop the drug Spinraza, which corrects a gene-splicing error that occurs in those afflicted. He says the drug has the potential to treat other disorders as well. Krainer says with research, comes the unexpected.
“There's certainly many experiments that didn't work, but you can always repeat them. Sometimes it's the most fun, perhaps, is when you do an experiment that does work and you expect a certain outcome and you get exactly the opposite outcome. So you know, that sort of makes you think a lot and try to figure out, change your models, do more experiments. So there are sort of temporary setbacks, and they should just really encourage you to go further,” said Krainer.
The University of Rochester's Dr. Lynne Maquat's studies of mRNA have raised hopes for those afflicted with inherited diseases like cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. Her modest beginnings include a stint working in a factory. She had a message for high school students attending the award ceremony:
“I could never have imagined myself being here today," Maquat said. "I didn't even think about it. I focused on what I was doing. So focus on what you have to do. Utilize your strengths. We all have weaknesses. Compensate for your weaknesses and chip away every day, and you might be surprised where you will end up. So thank you so much.”
The recipients are sharing $500,000.
