Comments by Douglas Coleman, Ph.D., on Shaw Prize award
On June 16, 2009, Jackson Laboratory Emeritus Professor Douglas Coleman, Ph.D., was awarded the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine with Dr. Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
I am overwhelmed with the honor, and very surprised that what I thought was an interesting set of observations would turn out to have such a major impact in the field of obesity.
The leptin discovery provided the foundation for great advances in the understanding of the central and peripheral regulation of energy balance. We now know that adipose tissue is not merely a storage tissue, but is an endocrine organ that secretes a variety of hormones and cytokines essential for normal development as well as energy homeostasis.
Louis Pasteur said luck favors the prepared mind. My mind was prepared by many mentors at The Jackson Laboratory.
