Jackson Laboratory Emeritus Scientist Douglas Coleman Wins Gairdner Award

Date: April 4, 2005

Bar Harbor, Maine -- Jackson Laboratory Senior Staff Scientist Emeritus Douglas Coleman is one of six scientists to receive the 2005 Gairdner Foundation Award. The prestigious awards, established by Toronto businessman James Gairdner, have been presented since 1959 to honor achievement in medical science.

Canadian-born Dr. Coleman, a resident of Lamoine, Maine, was recognized "for contributions to our understanding of obesity and particularly for the discovery of the adipose [fat] tissue hormone, leptin." Other 2005 recipients include Dr. Jeffrey Friedmann of Rockefeller University, whose discovery of leptin was based on Dr. Coleman's research.

Dr. Coleman's many honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998, shortly after retiring from The Jackson Laboratory. Dr. Friedman and researchers around the world continue to study leptin—the “satiety factor” Dr. Coleman identified in the 1970s—in the search for effective treatments for obesity and obesity-related diseases.

The awards, which carry a $30,000 cash value, will be formally presented at a ceremony in Toronto in October. Of the 273 Gairdner winners, 64 have subsequently won the Nobel Prize.

With more than 1,300 employees and an FY05 operating budget of $130.1 million, the nonprofit, 75-year-old Jackson Laboratory is one of Maine's largest employers. Its research staff of more than 450 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes, and many other human diseases and disorders. The Laboratory is also home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and is also an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education-including programs for Maine high school, college, and graduate students.

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Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058, joyce@jax.org

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