William G. Kaelin, Jr., M.D. – the Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital – has been awarded, along with two other scientists, the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe of the University of Oxford, and Dr. Gregg Semenza of Johns Hopkins University, were honored for deciphering the mechanism that enables cells to sense and adapt to changes in oxygen abundance. The three were not formal scientific collaborators, but each worked on the problem separately.
“We’re all incredibly proud of Dr. Kaelin – and hopeful for the promise this means for patients here and everywhere,” said Dana-Farber President and CEO Laurie Glimcher, M.D.