Retired JAX Scientists Garners "Nobel of the East" Award Pioneering Obesity Research
JAX® NOTES Issue 514, Summer 2009
Jackson Laboratory Professor Emeritus Douglas Coleman, Ph.D., a pioneer in obesity and diabetes research, will share the prestigious Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine with Dr. Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The prize, issued by the Shaw Prize Foundation of Hong Kong, is widely regarded as the "Nobel of the East" and carries a $1 million award.
Professor Emeritus Douglas Coleman, Ph.D.
Canadian-born and a resident of Bar Harbor, Maine, Professor Coleman conducted research at The Jackson Laboratory for 40 years—from 1957 to 1997. In the 1970s, he conducted a series of experiments that led him to propose the existence of a 'satiety factor' that would account for obesity and type 2 diabetes among certain mice. Dr. Friedman would later identify that factor as leptin, a hormone that regulates food intake and body weight. As a result of Coleman's and Friedman's research, we now know that adipose tissue is not merely a storage tissue but an endocrine organ that secretes a variety of hormones and cytokines essential for normal development and energy homeostasis. The findings opened the door to new possibilities for treating obesity and diabetes by revealing that they are partly regulated by chemical and genetic factors—not just willpower and eating habits.
Established by Chinese movie executive and philanthropist Run Shaw, the Shaw Prize "honors individuals, regardless of race, nationality and religious belief, who have achieved significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research or application and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind". The sixth annual prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Hong Kong on Wednesday, October 7. The award took Professor Coleman completely by surprise: "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."
Jackson Laboratory President and CEO Rick Woychik hailed the award: "Obesity and diabetes are reaching epidemic proportions in America. Doug Coleman's groundbreaking discovery and Jeff Friedman's subsequent work used the remarkable power of mouse genetics to provide important mechanistic insights into 'diabesity' in humans. Their work continues to influence research being conducted today at The Jackson Laboratory and institutions around the world. Everyone in The Jackson Laboratory community congratulates Doug for this well-deserved honor."
