Jackson Laboratory NY gala Sept. 18 to honor Nobel laureate, biotech investor

Date: September 16, 2008

The stars will be out in New York Thursday night when The Jackson Laboratory honors two legends in the life sciences world at a fundraising gala at the Pierre Hotel.

Nobel laureate David Baltimore, Ph.D., and renowned biotech investor Anthony B. Evnin, Ph.D., will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the gala, hosted by the National Council, a network of volunteers and donors who support The Jackson Laboratory.

Maine business leader David Shaw and his wife, actress Glenn Close, are co-chairs of the event. Maine Governor John Baldacci and seven Nobel Prize winners are expected to attend, as well as several surprise celebrity guests. Musician James Taylor will perform.

Funds raised by the national gala will support young investigators at The Jackson Laboratory, continuing the  institution's long history of advancing human health.

Dr. David Baltimore is the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, where he was president from 1997 to 2006. He is also the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At the age of 37, while on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's faculty, he shared the Nobel Prize with the late Howard Temin. Drs. Baltimore and Temin both described their summers during high school in The Jackson Laboratory's Summer Student Program as the inspiration for their scientific careers.

Dr. Anthony B. Evnin is a general managing partner in Venrock, the Rockefeller family's venture capital firm. He started his career as a research scientist and group leader in Organic Chemistry at Union Carbide and as director of Product Development at Story Chemical. He joined Venrock in 1974 and built the firm's healthcare franchise, helping to shape the modern biotechnology industry.

The Jackson Laboratory is a nonprofit biomedical research institution and National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center based in Bar Harbor, Maine. Its mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human diseases, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community.

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Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058

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Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6051
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org