The ALS Association Congratulates Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board for Distinguished Award

Tom Maniatis, Ph.D.

The ALS Association is pleased to congratulate Tom Maniatis, Ph.D., the Isidore S. Edelman Professor of Biochemistry and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center, who will receive the 2012 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science from the Lasker Foundation later this month. 

Dr. Maniatis serves as Chair of The ALS Association’s Scientific Advisory Board. He has been instrumental in helping The Association shape its Translational Research Advancing Therapies for ALS (TREAT ALS™) program, through which The Association funds a diverse portfolio of research to find treatments and a cure for Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“We are thrilled to learn that Dr. Tom Maniatis will receive this prestigious award and honored that he has played such an integral role in shaping our own research programs,” said Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., Chief Scientist for The ALS Association. “The ALS community is fortunate to have such a distinguished investigator committed to understanding and finding treatments and a cure for this devastating disease.”

The Lasker Awards are among the most respected science prizes in the world. The Lasker-Koshland Award honors scientists whose contributions to research are of unique magnitude and have immeasurable influence on the course of science, health or medicine. The awards will be given out on September 21 in New York City.

Dr. Maniatis' career, which has included positions at Harvard, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Cal Tech, has focused on the way human genes are switched on and off in cells. He pioneered methods for understanding gene expression, which led to the development of new therapies to treat human genetic diseases.

Throughout the years, Dr. Maniatis’ laboratory has become more and more involved in ALS research, and he and his team have made significant contributions to the field of ALS.  These contributions include his work with embryonic stem cells derived from mouse models of ALS, and more recently induced pluripotent stem cells derived from ALS patients. Several of these important studies were funded in-part by The ALS Association.

One of the researcher’s in Dr. Maniatis’ lab, Monica Carrasco, Ph.D., received the The Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research Award, which is made possible by the generosity of the Safenowitz family through the Greater New York Chapter of The ALS Association and is in memory of Mr. Safenowitz, who died of ALS in 1998.

The Greater New York Chapter will honor Dr. Maniatis at its 18th Annual Lou Gehrig Sports Awards Benefit on November 7, 2012, with the 2012 Jacob K. Javits Lifetime Achievement Award.