Scientists who’ve revolutionized the therapy of weight problems win the Princess of Asturias Award | Science | EUROtoday

Five scientists who’ve revolutionized the therapy of weight problems have gained this Wednesday the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research 2024. The decades-long analysis of the Canadian Daniel J. Drucker, the Dane Jens Juul Holst and the Americans Jeffrey M. Friedman, Joel F. Habener and Svetlana Mojsov have developed a number of medication to fight diabetes and weight problems, corresponding to Ozempic, an injectable drug whose gross sales are producing billions of euros every year.

The award has acknowledged an injustice. Three scientists had gained the awards thus far: Joel Habener, from Massachusetts General Hospital; Daniel Drucker, from the University of Toronto; and Jens Juul Holst, from the University of Copenhagen, who in analysis begun half a century in the past recognized an intestinal hormone, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which stimulates the pancreas to launch extra insulin when the sugar degree in blood is elevated. The American biochemist Svetlana Mojsov, born 77 years in the past in Skopje (within the former Yugoslavia, right this moment North Macedonia), additionally had an important position in these first research, when she labored at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The fifth winner is the physician Jeffrey M. Friedman, born in Orlando (United States) 69 years in the past, who in 1994 found leptin, a hormone produced by fats cells that helps management the sensation of starvation and the quantity of saved fats. within the physique. In weight problems, this mechanism could also be unbalanced. The World Health Organization estimates that the variety of overweight individuals has doubled since 1990, reaching nearly 900 million on this planet, as a result of lack of wholesome meals at reasonably priced costs and services for taking part in sports activities, amongst different issues. Obesity is related to poverty.

Millions of individuals obtain the medicines that emerged from the scientific revolution initiated by the 5 winners. The greatest recognized is semaglutide, a drug from the Danish firm Novo Nordisk, offered underneath the commerce title Ozempic, which mimics the exercise of GLP-1 and, along with a nutritious diet and train, improves blood sugar ranges in individuals with sort 1 diabetes and reduces the danger of coronary heart assault and stroke. American pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company additionally presents best-selling GLP-1 agonist medication: dulaglutide (Trulicity) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro).

Each Princess of Asturias Award is endowed with 50,000 euros and a sculpture by Joan Miró. The deliberations within the scientific class started this Tuesday in Oviedo, with a jury of 17 members chaired by the physicist Pedro Miguel Echenique, which included the biologist Cristina Garmendia, the mathematician Peregrina Quintela, the geneticist Ginés Morata and the paleoanthropologist Juan Luis Arsuaga .

Echenique, president of the Donostia International Physics Center, introduced this Wednesday that the decision was unanimous. “This research has led to the development of treatments that are now available and that are improving the quality of life of hundreds of millions of people around the world,” Echenique proclaimed, studying the jury report. “These works are having an enormous clinical and social impact, since they have allowed for the first time the development of effective drugs to combat diabetes and obesity. In addition, they allow us to mitigate associated pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases,” he celebrated. This yr, 48 candidates from 17 nations aspired to the award.

The Princess of Asturias Foundation has highlighted the underappreciated work of Svetlana Mojsov, right this moment at Rockefeller University in New York. “Despite her role in the discovery and study of GLP-1, her name was not recognized until she initiated a lawsuit demanding that articles that appeared in The New York Times, Nature y Cell”, the muse has famous in a biographical observe.

Magazine Science In September 2023, he revealed an article that warned that Mojsov had been excluded from the story. The researcher, in contrast to her award-winning colleagues, by no means ran her personal laboratory and, after her revolutionary discoveries, remained out of the scientific highlight, publishing research a lot much less typically. One day in 2021, Mojsov discovered that Canada's Gairdner International Prize, value 100,000 Canadian {dollars} (about 67,000 euros), had been awarded to Joel Habener, Daniel Drucker and Jens Juul Holst. It was the third main award that the trio acquired and not noted the researcher. “It bothered me a lot,” Mojsov advised the journal. Science. “I still don't understand how I was excluded.”

The scientific award is the seventh of the eight worldwide awards that the Princess of Asturias Foundation will announce this yr. Singer Joan Manuel Serrat gained within the Arts class on April 24. The Iranian cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, additionally a movie director and painter, has acquired the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. In Sports, the winner was Carolina Marín, three-time badminton world champion. In Social Sciences, the jury has acknowledged the profession of the Canadian essayist Michael Ignatieff. The Romanian poet Ana Blandiana gained the Literature award on May 23 and, final week, the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. On June 12, the decision within the Concordia class will probably be introduced.

You can observe MATERIA in Facebook, X e Instagramclick on right here to obtain our weekly publication.