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Penzberg, Germany, May 11, 2004
2004 Molecular Bioanalytics Science Prize Awarded
During the opening ceremony at the International Analytica Trade
Fair in Munich, Germany the German Society for Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology (GBM) awarded the renowned Science prize "Molecular
Bioanalytics" for 2004. For the seventeenth time, scientists
were honored with the prize, endowed by Roche Diagnostics, in the
amount of 50,000 euro for their extraordinary contributions to molecular
bioanalytics.
This year, the prize went to American Dr. Stephen P.A. Fodor, British
Professor Sir Edwin Southern, and posthumously to the Russian Professor
Andrei Mirzabekov, who passed away last year, for their fundamental
contributions to the development of microarray technology (DNA chip).
DNA chip technology is one of the applications with the greatest
diagnostic clinical potential. Individual DNA segments are affixed
to a glass surface, thereby functioning as so-called probes. Each
probe detects a specific gene sequence. The sequences bind to the
probe by hybridization. Unlike any other technology, gene chips
are the premier example of miniaturization and automation in bioanalytics
and medicine. They provide actionable information relevant for research,
diagnosis, and treatment and open the door to more individualized
medicine. The function of genes or predispositions for certain tumor
diseases can be diagnosed, as can the tolerability of drugs. This
facilitates the selection and dosage of active ingredients for treatment.
In addition, unnecessary costs in the health-care sector can be
avoided.
Dr. Fodor, a doctor of chemistry, researched methods with a high
throughput of material and described microarray technology for the
first time. In addition, he is co-founder, president, and CEO of
Affymetrix, a California-based biotechnology company and a leading
manufacturer of DNA chips.
Professor Southern of the University of Oxford also received the
prize in 1984 for developing the DNA hybridization method named
after him (Southern blotting). As a repeat winner, he has demonstrated
his extraordinary scientific abilities once again.
Professor Mirzabekov was the director of the Engelhardt Institute
for Molecular Biology in Moscow for almost 20 years. He played a
central role in the Human Genome Project and worked tirelessly and
under difficult circumstances on the development of DNA chips for
unknown sequences. He died last summer.
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's
leading innovation-driven healthcare groups. Its core businesses
are pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is number one in the
global diagnostics market, the leading supplier of pharmaceuticals
for cancer and a leader in virology and transplantation. As a supplier
of products and services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment
of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to
improving people's health and quality of life. Roche employs roughly
65,000 people in 150 countries. The Group has alliances and research
and development agreements with numerous partners, including majority
ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. Roche's Diagnostics
Division, the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics with a uniquely
broad product portfolio, supplies a wide array of innovative testing
products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals
and laboratories world-wide. In Germany, the company has approximately
10,000 employees at its two sites in Mannheim and Penzberg.
Photos:
www.roche.de/molbio
Additional information:
Barbara Jopp-Heins
Tel.: +49 8856 60-3202
Fax: +49 8856 60-3417
barbara.jopp-heins@roche.com
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