Four Japanese Researchers and Emmanuel Mignot Receive Prestigious Lasker Awards

The New York based Lasker Foundation announced on Wednesday that four Japanese researchers and Professor Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University have received the Lasker Awards for medicine. Masashi Yanagisawa, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, shared the basic medical research award with Mignot for their identification of orexin. Orexin is a brain peptide that helps maintain wakefulness, and the discovery that its deficiency causes narcolepsy has led to the development of new sleep medications and the first specific treatment for narcolepsy.

In the clinical medical research category, three researchers from Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Kunihiro Hattori, Tomoyuki Igawa, and Takehisa Kitazawa, were honored for developing Hemlibra. This medication for hemophilia A uses a unique antibody to replace missing blood clotting functions, reducing the frequency of injections and providing an alternative for patients who did not respond to previous treatments. Additionally, actor Michael J. Fox was recognized in a category for public service for his work increasing understanding of Parkinson's disease.

These awards are often viewed as indicators of potential Nobel Prize winners. This marks the first time in 12 years that Japanese scientists have received the honor. While center leaning reports focused on the broad achievement of the four Japanese winners and the clinical impact of the hemophilia drug, center left reports provided more personal details about the researchers and the specific biological mechanisms of orexin.