Michael N. Hall awarded 2012 Marcel Benoist Prize
Bern, 24.09.2012 - Michael N. Hall, Professor at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum is to receive this year’s Marcel Benoist Prize. The president of the foundation’s board, Federal Councillor Alain Berset, received him today in Bern
The prize is being awarded to Hall for his ground-breaking studies in the field of cell biology on cell growth and the development of cancer. As a young assistant professor at the Biozentrum in the 1990's, Hall discovered a protein that controls cell growth and size in the context of his work on simple organisms, in particular yeasts. It soon became clear to him that this mechanism was also present in complex organisms such as mammals and humans and was vital to the life processes of cells and organs. Hall named the growth regulator TOR (target of rapamycin). The drug rapamycin is a growth inhibitor that is today used in cancer therapies thanks to Hall's research. In 2002, he discovered that TOR operates within two distinct protein complexes. Both TOR complexes are at the centre of a series of signal cascades within the cell that control its survival, size and to some extent cell division. A pharmacological blockade of TOR can therefore be used to slow the uncontrolled growth typical of cancerous tissue.
Recent findings made by Hall and other teams of researchers are highly significant because they show that TOR ‘senses' the availability of nutrients for cells and tissues and integrates this information into cell growth. This has important consequences for medicine as it means TOR plays an important role in the ageing process and the dysregulation that occurs in obesity. Hall's discovery was a major breakthrough as it revealed a mechanism central to the life processes of cells and tissues. His discoveries are now considered part of basic scientific knowledge in biology. Many research groups in molecular- and cell-biology, pharmacology and medicine work today with his findings and concepts.
The award ceremony for the Marcel Benoist Prize will take place on the 27th of November 2012 at the University of Basel. The Marcel Benoist Prize, sometimes called the «Swiss Nobel Prize», has been awarded every year since 1920 to researchers working in Switzerland for major contributions in disciplines of significance to human life (for further information see www.marcel-benoist.ch).
The cooperation programme launched in 2010 with the foundation «Schweizer Jugend forscht» is to continue this year. Hall will make himself available where possible for two visits to the foundation's projects. The visits promote exchange between generations of scientists and are intended to stimulate interest on both sides.
As part of the administrative reform approved by the Federal Council, the Marcel Benoist Foundation will become part of the new Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research from 1 January 2013.
Address for enquiries
Silvia Studinger, Executive Secretary of the Marcel Benoist Foundation, State Secretariat for Education and Research SER, 079 703 93 60
www.marcel-benoist.ch
Katja Zürcher, Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA, 079 309 42 35
Documents
Publisher
Federal Department of Home Affairs
http://www.edi.admin.ch
General Secretariat FDHA
http://www.edi.admin.ch
State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER) - as of 1.1.2013 SERI
http://www.sbf.admin.ch
