Gairdner Foundation Award (biomedicine)
Jewish recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Award (biomedicine) documented in the ThankJews directory. Jews are about 27% of all recipients — while making up roughly 0.2% of the world's population.
107 documented recipients
Harry Rose
Physician, co-describer of the rheumatoid-factor (Rose-Waaler) test
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Karl Meyer1899
Biochemist who discovered hyaluronidase and studied connective-tissue chemistry
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Arnold Rich1893
Pathologist known for research on tuberculosis and hypersensitivity
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Alexander Gutman1902
Physician-scientist, research on uric acid metabolism and gout
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Stanley Sarnoff1917
Physiologist and inventor of the auto-injector used for emergency drug delivery
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Seymour Benzer1921
Molecular biologist who mapped the fine structure of the gene and pioneered the genetics of behavior using fruit flies.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Deborah Doniach1912
Immunologist who helped establish the concept of organ-specific autoimmune disease.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Ivan Roitt1927
Immunologist who helped establish autoimmunity and authored a leading immunology textbook.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Jerome Conn1907
Endocrinologist who first described primary aldosteronism (Conn's syndrome).
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Julius Axelrod1970
Showed that nerve endings take back the noradrenaline they release (reuptake) and discovered the enzyme COMT; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1970
Source: Wikipedia — Julius Axelrod / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1970
Marshall Nirenberg1968
Genetic Code
Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 1968
Sidney Udenfriend1918
Biochemist who advanced neurochemistry and invented the fluorescence assay for serotonin
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Solomon Berson1918
Physician who co-developed radioimmunoassay, enabling precise measurement of hormones in blood.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Rachmiel Levine1910
Endocrinologist who showed that insulin acts by promoting glucose transport into cells.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Rosalyn Yalow1977
Developed radioimmunoassay with Solomon Berson, a way of measuring minute amounts of hormones in the blood, which they chose not to patent; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977
Source: Wikipedia — Rosalyn Sussman Yalow / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1977
David Baltimore1975
Discovered reverse transcriptase (1970), the enzyme retroviruses such as HIV use to copy RNA into DNA; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975; president of Caltech 1997–2006
Source: Wikipedia — David Baltimore / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1975
Juda Quastel1899
Biochemist and a founder of neurochemistry and soil microbiology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Howard Temin1975
Proposed the DNA provirus hypothesis (1964) and co-discovered reverse transcriptase (1970), showing that genetic information can flow from RNA to DNA; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975
Source: Wikipedia — Howard Martin Temin / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1975
Ernest Beutler1928
Hematologist and geneticist who advanced the treatment of inherited blood and metabolic diseases.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Baruch Blumberg1976
Hepatitis B Virus and Vaccine
Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 1976
William Kannel1923
Cardiologist who led the Framingham Heart Study and coined the term 'risk factor'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
George Klein1925
Tumor biologist who advanced understanding of viral oncology and tumor immunology.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Sydney Brenner2002
Helped establish messenger RNA and the triplet genetic code, and made the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans a model for the genetics of development; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002
Source: Wikipedia — Sydney Brenner / NobelPrize.org Medicine 2002
Samuel Freedman
Biomedical researcher
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Phil Gold1936
Physician who discovered carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a widely used cancer marker
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Walter Gilbert1980
DNA Sequencing
Source: Nobel Prize Chemistry 1980
Paul Berg1972
Biochemist who made the first recombinant DNA molecule in 1972, the starting point of genetic engineering, and organized the 1975 Asilomar conference on its safety; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980
Source: Wikipedia — Paul Berg / NobelPrize.org Chemistry 1980
Irving Fritz1927
Biochemist, research on carnitine and fatty-acid metabolism
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Efraim Racker1913
Biochemist who reconstituted and elucidated the enzyme that synthesizes ATP.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Jesse Roth1934
Endocrinologist who advanced the understanding of hormone receptors
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Michael Sela1924
Immunologist who co-developed Copaxone for multiple sclerosis and pioneered synthetic antigens.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Michael S. Brown1941
Awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize for discovering the LDL receptor and the regulation of cholesterol metabolism.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Joseph Goldstein1940
With Michael Brown discovered the LDL receptor (1973) and how cells regulate cholesterol, the scientific basis of statin drugs; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1985
Source: Wikipedia — Joseph L. Goldstein / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1985
César Milstein1927
Awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize for developing the technique to produce monoclonal antibodies.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Elizabeth Neufeld1928
Biochemist who elucidated the cellular basis of lysosomal storage diseases.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Saul Roseman1921
Biochemist regarded as a father of glycobiology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Louis Siminovitch1920
Geneticist regarded as a father of Canadian medical genetics
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Bruce Ames1928
Biochemist who devised the Ames test, a widely used assay for detecting chemical mutagens and carcinogens.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Gerald Aurbach1927
Endocrinologist who advanced understanding of parathyroid hormone and calcium regulation
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Richard Gershon1932
Immunologist who discovered suppressor (regulatory) T cells
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Alfred Gilman1941
Awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for the discovery of G-proteins and their role in cellular signal transduction.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Martin Rodbell1925
Awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for the discovery of G-proteins in cellular signal transduction.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Harold Varmus1989
With Michael Bishop showed that retroviral oncogenes derive from normal cellular genes (proto-oncogenes), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1989; director of the NIH 1993–1999 and of the National…
Source: Wikipedia — Harold E. Varmus / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1989
Stanley Cohen1986
Growth Factors
Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 1986
Mark Ptashne1940
Molecular biologist who first isolated a gene repressor, revealing how genes are switched on and off.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Charles Yanofsky1925
Geneticist who demonstrated the colinearity of a gene and the protein it encodes.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Aser Rothstein1918
Physiologist, research on cell-membrane transport
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Eric Kandel2000
Showed in the sea snail Aplysia how learning changes synapses and how short- and long-term memories are stored; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2000
Source: Wikipedia — Eric Kandel / NobelPrize.org Medicine 2000
Michael Rossmann1930
Structural biologist who solved the first atomic structure of a virus and identified the Rossmann fold.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Sir Michael Epstein
Gairdner Award (biomedicine)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Awards
Robert Lefkowitz1943
Physician and biochemist who tracked down and characterised the G-protein-coupled receptors through which about half of all medicines act; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012
Source: Wikipedia — Robert Lefkowitz
Judah Folkman1933
Surgeon who founded the field of angiogenesis research, opening a new approach to cancer therapy; Gairdner Award in biomedicine
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Robert Furchgott1916
Awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize for discovering nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Bert Vogelstein1949
Cancer geneticist who mapped the genetic mutations driving colorectal cancer progression.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Robert Weinberg1942
Cancer biologist who isolated the first human oncogene and first tumor-suppressor gene.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Alvan Feinstein1925
Physician regarded as a founder of clinical epidemiology and clinimetrics.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Stanley Prusiner1997
Discovered prions, infectious agents made of misfolded protein alone, the cause of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and scrapie; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1997
Source: Wikipedia — Stanley Prusiner / NobelPrize.org Medicine 1997
Bruce Alberts1938
Biochemist, lead author of the textbook Molecular Biology of the Cell and former president of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Arthur Kornberg1959
DNA Synthesis
Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 1959
Robert Langer1948
Biomedical engineer who pioneered controlled drug-delivery systems and tissue engineering.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
James Rothman1950
Biochemist who uncovered the protein machinery of the SNAREs that lets vesicles dock and fuse with their targets inside cells; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013
Source: Wikipedia — James Rothman
Randy Schekman1948
Cell biologist who used yeast genetics to find the genes that govern vesicle traffic and protein secretion in cells; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013
Source: Wikipedia — Randy Schekman
Corey Goodman1951
Neuroscientist known for discoveries on axon guidance and nervous system wiring
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Avram Hershko2004
Discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
Source: Jinfo.org / Nobel Prize Chemistry 2004
H. Robert Horvitz1947
Awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize for discoveries on the genetic regulation of programmed cell death (apoptosis).
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Alexander Varshavsky1946
Biologist who discovered the ubiquitin system's N-end rule governing protein lifespan.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Jack Hirsh1935
Hematologist, pioneer of anticoagulation therapy
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Roger Kornberg2006
Biochemist who identified the nucleosome and captured the transcription machinery of eukaryotic cells in atomic detail; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006
Source: Wikipedia — Roger Kornberg
Marc Kirschner1945
Cell biologist known for work on the cytoskeleton and cell cycle control
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Eric Lander1957
Geneticist who was a principal leader of the Human Genome Project.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Richard Axel1946
Awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for discovering odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Ralph Steinman1943
Immunologist who discovered the dendritic cell in 1973 and showed how it switches on adaptive immunity; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011
Source: Wikipedia — Ralph Steinman
Arthur Horwich1951
Biologist who discovered chaperonins, the cellular machines that fold proteins.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
George Sachs
Gairdner Award (biomedicine)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Awards
Andrew Fire2006
Nobel laureate in medicine (2006) for the discovery of RNA interference (gene silencing)
Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 2006
Jeffrey Friedman1954
Molecular geneticist who discovered leptin, the hormone that regulates appetite and body weight.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Ronald M. Evans1949
Molecular biologist who discovered the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors governing gene expression.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Alan Bernstein1947
Molecular biologist and cancer/stem-cell researcher, founding head of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Gary Ruvkun1952
Molecular biologist who, with Victor Ambros, discovered microRNA and its role in gene regulation, and showed in 2000 that the second microRNA, let-7, is conserved across animals; Nobel Prize in…
Source: Wikipedia — Gary Ruvkun / NobelPrize.org Medicine 2024
Nahum Sonenberg1946
Biochemist who elucidated the control of protein synthesis (translation) initiation
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Samuel Weiss
Gairdner Award (biomedicine)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Awards
Richard Losick1943
Molecular biologist known for work on gene regulation and bacterial development
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Lucy Shapiro1940
Developmental biologist who revealed how bacterial cells control their cycle in space and time.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Pierre Chambon1931
Molecular biologist who discovered split genes and pioneered the study of nuclear hormone receptors.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Howard Cedar1943
Molecular biologist who elucidated the role of DNA methylation in gene regulation
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Michael Hayden
Gairdner Award (biomedicine)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Awards
Aharon Razin1935
Biochemist who helped establish the role of DNA methylation in gene control
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Thomas Jessell
Gairdner Award (biomedicine)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Awards
Jeffrey Ravetch1951
Immunologist who elucidated the role of antibody Fc receptors in immunity
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Michael Rosbash1944
Geneticist who with Jeffrey Hall isolated the period gene and showed how its protein drives the feedback loop of the circadian clock; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017
Source: Wikipedia — Michael Rosbash
Harvey Alter1935
Awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Marc Feldmann1944
Immunologist who pioneered anti-TNF therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Michael N. Hall2023
Discovered the TOR pathway governing cell growth; Grande Médaille (2023); Jewish mother
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Grande Médaille of the French Academy of Sciences
David Julius1955
Awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering receptors for temperature and touch
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Lewis Kay1962
Biophysicist, developer of NMR methods for protein structure and dynamics
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Susan Horwitz1937
Pharmacologist who determined the mechanism of the anticancer drug Taxol.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Ronald Vale1959
Cell biologist who discovered kinesin, a motor protein that transports cargo within cells.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Daniel Drucker1956
Endocrinologist whose GLP-1 research underlies modern diabetes and obesity drugs.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Stuart Orkin
Gairdner Award (biomedicine)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Gairdner Foundation Awards
Drew Weissman2023
Physician and immunologist who with Katalin Karikó found the nucleoside base modifications that made mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 possible; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023
Source: Wikipedia — Drew Weissman
Bonnie Bassler1962
Microbiologist who elucidated quorum sensing, the chemical communication between bacteria.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
E. Peter Greenberg1948
Microbiologist who helped discover bacterial quorum sensing
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Michael Silverman
Biomedical researcher
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Zelig Eshhar1941
Immunologist who invented the CAR-T cell, the basis of modern cancer immunotherapy.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
David Klenerman1959
Chemist who co-invented next-generation DNA sequencing (the technology behind Illumina/Solexa).
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology
Iva Greenwald1958
Developmental biologist, research on Notch signaling
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science
Gary Struhl1953
Developmental biologist, research on morphogen signaling in Drosophila
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biomedical Science