Baltimore and Witte. The presence of Bcr-Abl in 95 percent of CML patients made this molecule a particularly attractive target for the design of a selective kinase inhibitor. Matter, an early champion of kinase inhibitor research at Novartis, recruited Lydon to take on the effort of identifying Bcr-Abl inhibitors. Lydon, while working on this effort, began collaborating with Druker, whom he had met years earlier when Druker was an oncology fellow studying kinases in the 1980s at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate. The drug works by blocking Bcr-Abl's ability to transfer phosphate groups to acceptor proteins, a key process in signaling the continued growth of the tumor cells.
GISTs originate in the stomach or small intestine in cells that form the organs' connective tissue.
Patients with malignant GISTs that cannot be removed by surgery generally die within a year or two of diagnosis. Researchers found that STI571 blocked another tyrosine kinase, KIT, the flawed protein found in GISTs, and one patient has shown significant shrinkage in tumor size. Each year the committee recognizes creative research that has dramatically affected the human condition. Chelsea, Massachusetts, native Warren Alpert, chairman of Warren Equities, established the Alpert Prize in 1987 after reading an article about the University of Edinburgh's Kenneth Murray, who had developed a vaccine for hepatitis B. Alpert decided he would like to reward such far-reaching breakthroughs. He called Murray to tell him he had won a prize, then set about creating the foundation.