The recent honors recognize Maquat鈥檚 contributions to the understanding of RNA mechanisms, including her discovery of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay.
, director of the University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology, is the winner of the聽聽and the . Honored for her research on RNA mechanisms that contribute to a wide range of diseases, Maquat鈥檚 work has laid the foundation for the development of treatments targeting conditions that can鈥檛 always be corrected with conventional drugs, such as cystic fibrosis, cancers, and fragile X syndrome.
The J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Maquat has spent her career deciphering the many roles that聽聽and is well known for her discovery of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, or NMD. One of the major surveillance systems in the body, NMD protects against innate mistakes in gene expression by targeting and eliminating deleterious mRNAs that could lead to the production of incomplete and potentially toxic proteins that can cause disease.
Maquat shares the Dr. Paul Janssen Award with Alexander Varshavsky of the California Institute of Technology, and the Albany Prize with Howard Chang of Stanford University School of Medicine, and Adrian Krainer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Past winners of both awards have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
鈥淟ynne鈥檚 scientific career is nothing short of outstanding and her contributions have brought RNA biology to the leading edge of medicine,鈥� says David Linehan, CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center and dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. 鈥淭hese back-to-back awards acknowledge her exceptional ability to discover, innovate, and push the limits of scientific understanding, and we鈥檙e extremely proud that her efforts are being acknowledged with these major honors.鈥�
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