Award Recipients | Warren Alpert Foundation

Congratulations 2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Howard Green, MD

Dr. Howard Green developed methodologies for the expansion and differentiation of human keratinocyte stem cells for permanent skin restoration in victims of extensive burns.

Additional information on Dr. Green is coming soon.

2008/2009 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Lloyd M. Aiello, MD

(Requires QuickTime Player)

Lloyd M. Aiello, MD remembers a period in the 1960s when 50 percent of his patients went blind every year. Mostly young adults, they suffered from a complication of diabetes in which weak, leaky blood vessels proliferate in the retina, leading to hemorrhage and vision loss.

Today the vast majority of patients with this disease--called diabetic retinopathy--retain their vision, thanks to a treatment Aiello, an ophthalmologist, pioneered with his father-in-law--the late William P. Beetham--in 1967. Aiello will receive the prestigious Warren Alpert Foundation Prize on September 29 during a ceremony at Harvard Medical School (HMS) for improving the lives of patients with diabetes. As an Alpert Prize recipient, Aiello joins an elite group of physician-scientists and researchers, seven of whom have also won the Nobel Prize.

"Lloyd M. Aiello's contribution to the prevention of blindness in diabetic patients is huge," says George King, HMS professor of medicine and research director at Joslin Diabetes Center. "Before the laser treatment, 95 percent of diabetic patients would go blind if they lived long enough. Blindness in the diabetic patient is now only 5 percent."

Four decades later, ophthalmologists still use Aiello's treatment to save patients' sight.

"I firmly believe that he saved me," adds Winslow Sawyer, a patient of Dr. Aiello's who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1950 and had his first laser treatment in 1967. "He's the reason that I still see today after being diabetic for so long."

"It's been a remarkable 40 years," says Aiello, an HMS clinical professor of ophthalmology at Joslin Diabetes Center's Beetham Eye Institute.

Prior to the discovery of insulin in 1921, diabetic patients did not live long enough to develop complications in their eyes. By the 1950s, however, proliferative diabetic retinopathy was the leading cause of blindness in the United States. The life expectancy of patients with symptoms was still abysmal. Few individuals survived more than 5 years after their blood vessels began to leak and multiply, and in many cases, seeing-eye dogs outlived their owners.

As endocrinologists worked to extend the life expectancy of diabetic patients, Aiello and Beetham resolved to keep them from going blind.

Retinopathy develops when blood flow slows in the retina, compromising vessel walls. As a result, blood leaks and pools in the tissue instead of reaching its destination. Deprived of blood flow and nutrients, other regions of the retina release factors that stimulate the growth of new vessels, which in turn are weak, leak and perpetuate the problem.

By studying thousands of retinas, Aiello and Beetham observed something curious: they noticed that patients with extensive retinal scarring from other diseases did not go blind as quickly as their peers. This unexpected finding provided the first major clue on how to stop this vicious cycle.

"We decided to mimic the scarring observed in these patients to halt the proliferation of blood vessels in other persons with diabetes without significantly compromising the visual field," says Aiello.

In 1967, the team took advantage of new laser technology to create scars in the retinas of young women and men without destroying the entire eye. Working in a small room at Joslin Diabetes Center that doubled as a broom closet, the researchers developed a way to focus a parallel beam of light on each patient's retina, creating several hundred lesions on tiny regions of tissue, one at a time. The patients remained awake for this laser surgery.

After presenting preliminary results at a major diabetes conference, Aiello helped organize the Diabetic Retinopathy Study, a multi-center clinical trial for the National Eye Institute, in the late 1960s and 1970s, to rigorously test his technique, known as scatter or panretinal photocoagulation. The success of the project spawned additional clinical trials, which allowed Aiello and others to refine the method and set a new standard for diabetes care.

"We've come an incredible distance, but now we need to work toward preserving vision with a pill so that we can retire the lasers," says Aiello. "My son, Lloyd P. Aiello, is tackling this project, and I think he has a good chance of succeeding in 10 to 20 years."

After relinquishing the development of next-generation treatments to his son, Aiello turned his attention to another big problem in diabetes--health care delivery.

The worldwide trend is from epidemic to pandemic, with diabetes projected to afflict 366 million individuals by 2030, according to the World Health Organization. As incidence of the disease rises across the globe, Aiello is working to ensure that patients everywhere have access to the latest diagnostic tools and treatments in the future. He collaborated with Beetham Eye Institute colleague Sven-Erik Bursell to start the Joslin Vision Network (JVN), which brings cutting-edge medicine to diabetic patients in remote regions via digital imaging.

Today JVN serves patients from more than 70 different Native American reservations as well as a hospital in Venezuela. Joslin doctors train health care providers from each site to take high-resolution images of retinas. The images are sent to Joslin or Joslin-certified reading centers, where experts analyze and interpret them before writing a report. Based on this report, health care providers at the remote sites dispense advice and treatment to their patients.

"Our only hope for handling the impending diabetes pandemic is telemedicine--remote site imaging and delivery of treatment to patients wherever they happen to live," says Aiello. "We're developing and automating this model."

2007 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner has been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine

Dr. zur Hausen (far right) during this year’s Warren Alpert Foundation (WAF) Award Luncheon with (from left) colleague Dr. Lutz Gissmann, Harvard Medical School Dean Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, WAF Director Jordan Golding, WAF President Herb Kaplan and WAF Director Bevin Kaplan.

The 2007 Warren Alpert Foundation prize winner has been awarded the Nobel Prize. According to the Nobel Assembly, Dr. zur Hausen was awarded the prize for work that “went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. He realized that HPV-DNA could exist in a non-productive state in the tumors, and should be detectable by specific searches for viral DNA. He found HPV to be a heterogeneous family of viruses. Only some HPV types cause cancer. His discovery has led to characterization of the natural history of HPV infection, an understanding of mechanisms of HPV-induced carcinogenesis and the development of prophylactic vaccines against HPV acquisition.”

Click here to read more about Dr. zur Hausen’s award on the Nobel Prize website.

The Warren Alpert Foundation congratulates Dr. zur Hausen on this remarkable achievement and his profound contributions to the medical community.

2007 Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann
Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann discovered that specific types of human papillomavirus (HPV) cause cancer of the cervix. This work began in 1972, after zur Hausen and colleagues failed to find genetic sequences for herpes simplex virus 2 in human cervical cancer and started to analyze the possible role of genital tract HPV in this disease. The research was subsequently bolstered by studies from cytologists providing evidence that an HPV was present in cervical dysplasia, a precursor lesion to cervical cancer that is the basis of the Pap smear.

Two years later, in 1974, Lutz Gissmann joined the zur Hausen group as a PhD student. Together, the scientists helped establish the heterogeneity of the papillomavirus family. Based on the subsequent isolation of papillomavirus types in genital warts and laryngeal papillomatosis, two of zur Hausen’s later students were able to clone and partially characterize the most prevalent virus types in cervical cancer, HPV 16 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 80, 3812, 1983) and HPV 18 (EMBO Journal 3, 1151, 1984). These two seminal studies included Gissmann, who played a critical role in directing the molecular biological techniques that were central to the investigations. In 1983, the scientists identified HPV 16 in precursor lesions of genital cancer, and in 1985, they revealed the genetic organization of HPV DNA in cervical cancer cells and the active transcription of HPV in the same kind of cells.

HPV16 and HPV18 are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer worldwide. From a global perspective, the disease ranks second in cancer incidence among women, and in many parts of Africa, Asia, and South America, it is the most frequent cancer among females. The work of many scientists followed the groundbreaking studies of zur Hausen and Gissmann, which established a role for HPVs in cancer. The development of preventive vaccines derive from the researchers’ initial studies as well as subsequent contributions.

Previous winners of the Warren Alpert Prize

View Previous Winners' Press Releases (pdf)

2008/2009 Lloyd M. Aiello, MD, for the discovery, characterization and implementation of laser panretinal photocoagulation, which is used to treat proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

2007 Harald zur Hausen, DSc, MD, and Lutz Gissmann, PhD, for work leading to the development of a vaccine against human papillomavirus.

2006 H. Michael Shepard, PhD, Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, Axel Ullrich, PhD, and Robert Weinberg, PhD, for their contribution to the development of the breast cancer therapy Herceptin, the first target-directed cancer treatment for solid tumors.

2005 Judah Folkman, MD, for discovering angiogenesis and its relationship to disease, and for championing the concept of anti-angiogenic therapies.

2004 Susan Band Horwitz, PhD, for her seminal contributions to the understanding of how the antitumor agent Taxol kills cancer cells.

2003 David V. Goeddel, PhD, Sidney Pestka, MD, and Charles Weissmann, MD, PhD, for their pioneering work on the purification, characterization, and cloning of human interferon-alpha.

2002 Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, for his pioneering work in understanding the role of vitamin A supplementation in preventing blindness and life-threatening infections in children in the developing world.

2001 Eugene Braunwald, MD, and Barry Coller, MD, for their pioneering work in cardiovascular research which has dramatically reduced the mortality rate for heart attacks.

2000 David Baltimore, PhD, Owen N. Witte, MD, Alex Matter, MD, Nicholas B. Lyndon, PhD, and Brian J. Druker, MD, for their research that contributed to the development of a drug that effectively treats chronic megelogenous leukemia and other forms of cancer.

1999 Akira Endo, PhD, Michael S. Brown, MD, and Joseph L. Goldstein, MD, for their research in the development of stations which lower the level of cholesterol in the heart.

1998 K. Frank Austen, MD, for elucidating the pathway forming the leukotrienes and their role in bronchial asthma.

10th Anniversary Robert Gallo, MD, and Luc Montagnier, MD, for their discovery of human immune deficiency virus (HIV).

1996 Leo Sachs, PhD, Hon MD, and Donald Metcalf, MD, for their discoveries of molecules that regulate the growth and differentiation of bone marrow cells in health and disease.

1995 John A. Clements, MD, for the development of the lung susfactant used for treating pulmonory hyaline membrane disease.

1994 J. Robin Warren, MBBS, and Barry J. Marshall, MBBS, for identifying Helicobacter pylori as the organism that causes gastric and duodenal ulcers.

1993 Stuart H. Orkin, MD, for developing a complete description of thalassemia at the molecular level.

1992 Roscoe O. Brady, MD, for discovering the enzymatic basis of Gaucher's disease leading to its effective treatment.

1991 David W. Cushman, PhD, and Miguel A. Ondetti, PhD, for designing a powerful new approach to the treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.

1989 Yuet Wai Kan, MD, for pioneering the use of DNA in the diagnosis of congenital anemias.

1988 Louis M. Kunkel, PhD, for defining the genetic basis of muscular dystrophy.

1987 Kenneth Murray, PhD, for elaborating the genetics of Hepatitis B as the basis for its vaccine.

Congratulations 2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Howard Green, MD

2008/2009 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Lloyd M. Aiello, MD

2007 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner has been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine

2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner Howard Green will be honored at a symposium in Boston Sept. 27.

Monday, Sept. 27 - Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Symposium:
Exploring Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine

Call for nominations for 2011



Award Recipients Congratulations 2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Howard Green, MD Dr. Howard Green developed methodologies for the expansion and differentiation of human keratinocyte stem cells for permanent skin restoration in victims of extensive burns. Additional information on Dr. Green is coming soon. 2008/2009 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Lloyd M. Aiello, MD (Requires QuickTime Player) Lloyd M. Aiello, MD remembers a period in the 1960s when 50 percent of his patients went blind every year. Mostly young adults, they suffered from a complication of diabetes in which weak, leaky blood vessels proliferate in the retina, leading to hemorrhage and vision loss. Today the vast majority of patients with this disease--called diabetic retinopathy--retain their vision, thanks to a treatment Aiello, an ophthalmologist, pioneered with his father-in-law--the late William P. Beetham--in 1967. Aiello will receive the prestigious Warren Alpert Foundation Prize on September 29 during a ceremony at Harvard Medical School (HMS) for improving the lives of patients with diabetes. As an Alpert Prize recipient, Aiello joins an elite group of physician-scientists and researchers, seven of whom have also won the Nobel Prize. "Lloyd M. Aiello's contribution to the prevention of blindness in diabetic patients is huge," says George King, HMS professor of medicine and research director at Joslin Diabetes Center. "Before the laser treatment, 95 percent of diabetic patients would go blind if they lived long enough. Blindness in the diabetic patient is now only 5 percent." Four decades later, ophthalmologists still use Aiello's treatment to save patients' sight. "I firmly believe that he saved me," adds Winslow Sawyer, a patient of Dr. Aiello's who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1950 and had his first laser treatment in 1967. "He's the reason that I still see today after being diabetic for so long." "It's been a remarkable 40 years," says Aiello, an HMS clinical professor of ophthalmology at Joslin Diabetes Center's Beetham Eye Institute. Prior to the discovery of insulin in 1921, diabetic patients did not live long enough to develop complications in their eyes. By the 1950s, however, proliferative diabetic retinopathy was the leading cause of blindness in the United States. The life expectancy of patients with symptoms was still abysmal. Few individuals survived more than 5 years after their blood vessels began to leak and multiply, and in many cases, seeing-eye dogs outlived their owners. As endocrinologists worked to extend the life expectancy of diabetic patients, Aiello and Beetham resolved to keep them from going blind. Retinopathy develops when blood flow slows in the retina, compromising vessel walls. As a result, blood leaks and pools in the tissue instead of reaching its destination. Deprived of blood flow and nutrients, other regions of the retina release factors that stimulate the growth of new vessels, which in turn are weak, leak and perpetuate the problem. By studying thousands of retinas, Aiello and Beetham observed something curious: they noticed that patients with extensive retinal scarring from other diseases did not go blind as quickly as their peers. This unexpected finding provided the first major clue on how to stop this vicious cycle. "We decided to mimic the scarring observed in these patients to halt the proliferation of blood vessels in other persons with diabetes without significantly compromising the visual field," says Aiello. In 1967, the team took advantage of new laser technology to create scars in the retinas of young women and men without destroying the entire eye. Working in a small room at Joslin Diabetes Center that doubled as a broom closet, the researchers developed a way to focus a parallel beam of light on each patient's retina, creating several hundred lesions on tiny regions of tissue, one at a time. The patients remained awake for this laser surgery. After presenting preliminary results at a major diabetes conference, Aiello helped organize the Diabetic Retinopathy Study, a multi-center clinical trial for the National Eye Institute, in the late 1960s and 1970s, to rigorously test his technique, known as scatter or panretinal photocoagulation. The success of the project spawned additional clinical trials, which allowed Aiello and others to refine the method and set a new standard for diabetes care. "We've come an incredible distance, but now we need to work toward preserving vision with a pill so that we can retire the lasers," says Aiello. "My son, Lloyd P. Aiello, is tackling this project, and I think he has a good chance of succeeding in 10 to 20 years." After relinquishing the development of next-generation treatments to his son, Aiello turned his attention to another big problem in diabetes--health care delivery. The worldwide trend is from epidemic to pandemic, with diabetes projected to afflict 366 million individuals by 2030, according to the World Health Organization. As incidence of the disease rises across the globe, Aiello is working to ensure that patients everywhere have access to the latest diagnostic tools and treatments in the future. He collaborated with Beetham Eye Institute colleague Sven-Erik Bursell to start the Joslin Vision Network (JVN), which brings cutting-edge medicine to diabetic patients in remote regions via digital imaging. Today JVN serves patients from more than 70 different Native American reservations as well as a hospital in Venezuela. Joslin doctors train health care providers from each site to take high-resolution images of retinas. The images are sent to Joslin or Joslin-certified reading centers, where experts analyze and interpret them before writing a report. Based on this report, health care providers at the remote sites dispense advice and treatment to their patients. "Our only hope for handling the impending diabetes pandemic is telemedicine--remote site imaging and delivery of treatment to patients wherever they happen to live," says Aiello. "We're developing and automating this model." 2007 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner has been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine Dr. zur Hausen (far right) during this year’s Warren Alpert Foundation (WAF) Award Luncheon with (from left) colleague Dr. Lutz Gissmann, Harvard Medical School Dean Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, WAF Director Jordan Golding, WAF President Herb Kaplan and WAF Director Bevin Kaplan. The 2007 Warren Alpert Foundation prize winner has been awarded the Nobel Prize. According to the Nobel Assembly, Dr. zur Hausen was awarded the prize for work that “went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. He realized that HPV-DNA could exist in a non-productive state in the tumors, and should be detectable by specific searches for viral DNA. He found HPV to be a heterogeneous family of viruses. Only some HPV types cause cancer. His discovery has led to characterization of the natural history of HPV infection, an understanding of mechanisms of HPV-induced carcinogenesis and the development of prophylactic vaccines against HPV acquisition.” Click here to read more about Dr. zur Hausen’s award on the Nobel Prize website. The Warren Alpert Foundation congratulates Dr. zur Hausen on this remarkable achievement and his profound contributions to the medical community. 2007 Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann discovered that specific types of human papillomavirus (HPV) cause cancer of the cervix. This work began in 1972, after zur Hausen and colleagues failed to find genetic sequences for herpes simplex virus 2 in human cervical cancer and started to analyze the possible role of genital tract HPV in this disease. The research was subsequently bolstered by studies from cytologists providing evidence that an HPV was present in cervical dysplasia, a precursor lesion to cervical cancer that is the basis of the Pap smear. Two years later, in 1974, Lutz Gissmann joined the zur Hausen group as a PhD student. Together, the scientists helped establish the heterogeneity of the papillomavirus family. Based on the subsequent isolation of papillomavirus types in genital warts and laryngeal papillomatosis, two of zur Hausen’s later students were able to clone and partially characterize the most prevalent virus types in cervical cancer, HPV 16 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 80, 3812, 1983) and HPV 18 (EMBO Journal 3, 1151, 1984). These two seminal studies included Gissmann, who played a critical role in directing the molecular biological techniques that were central to the investigations. In 1983, the scientists identified HPV 16 in precursor lesions of genital cancer, and in 1985, they revealed the genetic organization of HPV DNA in cervical cancer cells and the active transcription of HPV in the same kind of cells. HPV16 and HPV18 are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer worldwide. From a global perspective, the disease ranks second in cancer incidence among women, and in many parts of Africa, Asia, and South America, it is the most frequent cancer among females. The work of many scientists followed the groundbreaking studies of zur Hausen and Gissmann, which established a role for HPVs in cancer. The development of preventive vaccines derive from the researchers’ initial studies as well as subsequent contributions. Previous winners of the Warren Alpert Prize View Previous Winners' Press Releases (pdf) 2008/2009 Lloyd M. Aiello, MD, for the discovery, characterization and implementation of laser panretinal photocoagulation, which is used to treat proliferative diabetic retinopathy. 2007 Harald zur Hausen, DSc, MD, and Lutz Gissmann, PhD, for work leading to the development of a vaccine against human papillomavirus. 2006 H. Michael Shepard, PhD, Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, Axel Ullrich, PhD, and Robert Weinberg, PhD, for their contribution to the development of the breast cancer therapy Herceptin, the first target-directed cancer treatment for solid tumors. 2005 Judah Folkman, MD, for discovering angiogenesis and its relationship to disease, and for championing the concept of anti-angiogenic therapies. 2004 Susan Band Horwitz, PhD, for her seminal contributions to the understanding of how the antitumor agent Taxol kills cancer cells. 2003 David V. Goeddel, PhD, Sidney Pestka, MD, and Charles Weissmann, MD, PhD, for their pioneering work on the purification, characterization, and cloning of human interferon-alpha. 2002 Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, for his pioneering work in understanding the role of vitamin A supplementation in preventing blindness and life-threatening infections in children in the developing world. 2001 Eugene Braunwald, MD, and Barry Coller, MD, for their pioneering work in cardiovascular research which has dramatically reduced the mortality rate for heart attacks. 2000 David Baltimore, PhD, Owen N. Witte, MD, Alex Matter, MD, Nicholas B. Lyndon, PhD, and Brian J. Druker, MD, for their research that contributed to the development of a drug that effectively treats chronic megelogenous leukemia and other forms of cancer. 1999 Akira Endo, PhD, Michael S. Brown, MD, and Joseph L. Goldstein, MD, for their research in the development of stations which lower the level of cholesterol in the heart. 1998 K. Frank Austen, MD, for elucidating the pathway forming the leukotrienes and their role in bronchial asthma. 10th Anniversary Robert Gallo, MD, and Luc Montagnier, MD, for their discovery of human immune deficiency virus (HIV). 1996 Leo Sachs, PhD, Hon MD, and Donald Metcalf, MD, for their discoveries of molecules that regulate the growth and differentiation of bone marrow cells in health and disease. 1995 John A. Clements, MD, for the development of the lung susfactant used for treating pulmonory hyaline membrane disease. 1994 J. Robin Warren, MBBS, and Barry J. Marshall, MBBS, for identifying Helicobacter pylori as the organism that causes gastric and duodenal ulcers. 1993 Stuart H. Orkin, MD, for developing a complete description of thalassemia at the molecular level. 1992 Roscoe O. Brady, MD, for discovering the enzymatic basis of Gaucher's disease leading to its effective treatment. 1991 David W. Cushman, PhD, and Miguel A. Ondetti, PhD, for designing a powerful new approach to the treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. 1989 Yuet Wai Kan, MD, for pioneering the use of DNA in the diagnosis of congenital anemias. 1988 Louis M. Kunkel, PhD, for defining the genetic basis of muscular dystrophy. 1987 Kenneth Murray, PhD, for elaborating the genetics of Hepatitis B as the basis for its vaccine.		2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner Howard Green will be honored at a symposium in Boston Sept. 27. Monday, Sept. 27 - Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Symposium: Exploring Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Call for nominations for 2011
©2004 Warren Alpert Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Congratulations 2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Howard Green, MD

2008/2009 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize recipient Lloyd M. Aiello, MD

2007 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner has been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine

2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Winner Howard Green will be honored at a symposium in Boston Sept. 27.

Monday, Sept. 27 - Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Symposium: Exploring Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Call for nominations for 2011

Monday, Sept. 27 - Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Symposium:
Exploring Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine

Call for nominations for 2011