The Wiley Foundation, part of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and
JWb) — a global provider of knowledge and knowledge-enabled services
that improve outcomes in areas of research, professional practice, and
education — today announced the 14th annual Wiley
Prize in Biomedical Sciences will be awarded to Evelyn
M. Witkin and Stephen Elledge for their studies of
the DNA damage response. These scientists discovered that
all living cells can detect damage in their genetic material and respond
in a way that ensures their survival.
Evelyn Witkin, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, The Waksman
Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers, The State University of New
Jersey. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Witkin has also received the
Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal of the Genetics Society of America and the National
Medal of Science.
Stephen Elledge, Ph.D., Professor
of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s
Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a member of National Academy of
Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Institute of
Medicine of the National Academies. Dr. Elledge has received the Canada
Gairdner International Award, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for
Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research, and the Dickson Prize in
Medicine.
“When evaluating all of the significant biomedical achievements from
past years, one achievement that clearly stood out was the
groundbreaking work done by Evelyn Witkin in detailing the SOS response
to UV radiation in bacteria in the early 1970s,” said Dr. Günter Blobel,
Chairman of the awards jury for the Wiley Prize. “Stephen Elledge
discovered a parallel system operating in eukaryotes that senses DNA
damage and DNA replication blocks and relays this information throughout
the cell, profoundly altering cellular physiology to promote DNA repair,
genome stability, and organismal survival.
First awarded in 2002, The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences is
presented annually to recognize contributions that have opened new
fields of research or have advanced concepts in a particular biomedical
discipline. Among the many distinguished recipients of the Wiley Prize
in Biomedical Sciences, five have gone on to be awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
“The work of the 2015 Wiley Prize recipients truly upholds the mission
of the Wiley Prize and the Wiley Foundation,” said Deborah E. Wiley,
Chair of the Wiley
Foundation. “It is our hope that highlighting this research will
inspire additional scientific investigations into complex stress
response pathways.
This year’s award of $35,000 will be presented to the winners on April
17, 2015 at the Wiley Prize luncheon at The Rockefeller University.
There, Drs. Witkin and Elledge will deliver an honorary lecture as part
of The
Rockefeller University Lecture Series. This event will be live
streamed via the Current Protocols’ Webinar Series and registration
is free.
Contact the publicists:
Evelyn Martinez
Senior Publicist
sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
201-748-6358
Tom Griffin
Senior Manager, Digital PR
tgriffin@wiley.com
+44 (0) 1865 476213