Five distinguished scientists received the 1984 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Awards, presented by Mrs. Albert D. Lasker at the 39th Annual Luncheon, Friday, November 16, at the St. Regis-Sheraton Hotel in New York City.
Albert Lasker Medical Research Award
Mrs. Lasker congratulates the winners, from left, Dr. Henry J. Heimlich of Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, for developing the Heimlich Maneuver which has saved thousands from death by choking; Dr. Michael Potter of the National Cancer Institute for his pioneering work with plasma cells; Dr. Georges J. F. Köhler of Basel, Switzerland, and Dr. César Milstein of Cambridge, England, for their revolutionary discovery of hybridoma technology; and Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur of Stony Brook, New York, for developing a remarkable new way to visualize the body’s internal organs without radiation. Drs. Milstein and Köhler are also winners of the 1984 Nobel Prize in medicine.
Michael Potter For his fundamental research in the genetics of immunoglobulin molecules and for paving the way for the development of hybridomas and monoclonal antibodies.
Dr. Potter’s work has centered on the plasma cell, a form of white blood cell, which acts as the antibody factory for the immune system. The first of his profoundly important discoveries came in 1956, when he found that adjuvants containing mineral oil could cause plasma cell malignancies, or plasmacytomas, in mice. These tumors can be transplanted among mice or grown indefinitely in the laboratory, and are the equivalent of multiple myeloma in humans. This experimental model of human disease has become a keystone of immunological research around the world. Dr. Potter identified immunoglobulins, which bind to specific antigens, making it possible to analyze the structure and the binding properties of antibodies.
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1984 Abert Lasker basic medical research award presented by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation to Michael Potter, M.D. Chief, Laboratory of Genetics National Cancer Institute National Institutes of Health for his elegant studies of plasma cell tumors, leading to the development of monoclonal antibodies and enlarging our knowledge of carcinogenesis and the immune system.
