THE-Ave.US Challenge: who is going to win the Nobel?
Next Sunday night (US time), about 9 AM Monday Stockholm time, the Karolinska is going to wake up one to three biologists and announce they have won the Nobel Prize.
Thompson Reuters has their list based on citation, I call this hokey.
I have added some UW names I think may want to wait for the phone call.
Thompsen Reuters:
PAIN
David Julius, for elucidating the molecular workings of how our nerves process the sensation of pain, opening the way to new advances in pain management, This is c9ool science but I do not think the impact is broad enough across biology. .
Genetic Variation
Thompson selected three names : Charles Lee, Stephen W. Scherer and Michael H. Wigler .. for showing how variations in the genome other than the traditional mutations can cause disease. I think these names are good, but there are too many others to consider. If I were to pick one name, I would focus on someone doing the math that made all this possible ..Lander, Green or Pearl. (below)
Cell Adhesion
SMS: Hynes was not among the discovers of the integrins and his excellent work has not been unique. Ruosalahti is rumored to want the prize BUT his word on the peptide RGD has not yielded much clinical result. Personally, I would put Mark Ginsberg here, his work on what he called cytoadhesins was seminal to the huge world of integrin signalling. Tekeichi did discover the cadherins but a nobel for them surely would need to include a prize for the signalling pathways that use beta catenin. I would also include John Harlan since he, with my wife as first author, described the first adhesion molecule that controls inflammatory responses.
Cell Signaling and Control
SMS: I doubt this too, There already have been prizes for the signalling pathways controlled by the tyrosine kinases as well as for the ligands that stimulate them. The ony way I could see this is with Brian Druker.
Genetic Regulation
And here is my list
is for UW faculty I think have a good chance.
Mary Claire King, Breast cancer and interactions of the genes she found with modifying genes.
Reudi Jaenish, MIT, Beatrice Mintz, Fox Chase, the trangenic mouse.
- Eric Lander, Phil Green MIT, Harvard, UW human genome project
Ruslan Medzhitov Yale The innate immune system.
Jerry Nepom, UW, Ake Lernmark Upsalla, the type 1 diabetes gene
- Brian Druker, anti kinase therapy in cancer Oregon (see comment about Tony Hunter above).
Earl Davie, UW, the coagulation cascade.
