Napoleone Ferrara Named 2010 Lasker Award Winner

On September 21, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced that Genentech Fellow Napoleone Ferrara is one of four recipients of the 2010 Lasker Awards.

Dr. Ferrara received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his discovery of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and his translational work in the development of a therapy for people suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in adults. Dr. Ferrara, who has been at Genentech since 1988, will be presented with the award at a ceremony in New York City on October 1.

Now in their 65th year, the Lasker Awards are widely recognized as among the most prestigious medical research awards in the world. They have become popularly known as "America's Nobels" since seventy-nine Lasker recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize, including thirty of them in the last twenty years.

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"Napo - and everyone calls him 'Napo' - is a scientist's scientist. He has an instinct for knowing what good problems are, and is extremely dedicated, focused and driven in exploring them. Napo is emblematic of the best of Genentech science - taking the resources that are available here and using them to benefit patients. Given the significance of the work that he does, I couldn't be more delighted that he is receiving the prestigious Lasker Award."

-- Richard H. Scheller, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Genentech Research & Early Development