Albert Lasker
Basic Medical Research Award
Award Description
Richard H. Scheller and Thomas C. Südhof
For discoveries concerning the molecular machinery and regulatory mechanism
that underlie the rapid release of neurotransmitters.
The 2013 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award honors two scientists
for their discoveries concerning rapid neurotransmitter release, a process
that underlies all of the brain's activities. Richard H. Scheller (Genentech
) and Thomas C. Südhof (Stanford University School of Medicine) identified
and isolated many of this reaction's key elements, unraveled central aspects
of its fundamental mechanism, and deciphered how cells govern it with
extreme precision. These advances have provided a molecular framework for
understanding some of the most devastating disorders that afflict humans as
well as normal functions such as learning and memory.