The Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research is given annually by Johnson & Johnson to honor the work of an active scientist in academia, industry or a scientific institute in the field of biomedical research. It was established in 2004 and perpetuates the memory of Paul Janssen, the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary.
The Award
The Dr. Paul Janssen Award includes a $200,000 prize and acknowledges the work of an individual who has made a significant, transformational contribution toward the improvement of human health. Johnson & Johnson created the award in 2004 with the following goals:
To honor the memory of Janssen, his dedication to excellence and his leadership of young scientists
To promote, recognize and reward passion and creativity in biomedical research
To underscore Johnson & Johnson's commitment to scientific excellence in the advancement of healthcare knowledge, while fulfilling its responsibility in the community
Paul Adriaan Jan Janssen (1926 - 2003)
Known to his colleagues as “Dr. Paul,” Janssen was the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica, N.V., a pharmaceutical research laboratory based in Beerse, Belgium, and a physician-scientist who helped save millions of lives through his contribution to the discovery and development of more than 80 medicines. His work was responsible for many breakthroughs in several fields of disease, including pain management, psychiatry, infectious disease and gastroenterology. In addition, he has more than 100 patents to his name.
Selection Process
The award recipients are selected by an independent committee of scientists from leading academic and scientific institutions, whose own research contributions have resulted in critical advances in improving human health. The 2010 Selection Committee includes past Nobel Laureates, members of the National Academy of Sciences and previous winners of The Dr. Paul Janssen Award. The Selection Committee chooses a scientist in basic or clinical research, who:
Has made a significant contribution to research that has impacted, or has strong potential to impact, human health through the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of disease
Exhibits the standards of innovation, insight and leadership that Janssen exemplified during his career
Provides a living example that the study of science and technology can enable or has the potential to enable extended, healthy, productive life
Displays a set of ethical values consistent with the and those values that guide Johnson & Johnson
The award can be given to a scientist in academia, government, industry, a private research institution or medical or clinical practice. It typically will recognize an individual scientist, but can be shared if the contributions of the nominees are considered to have similar importance.
2008: Professor Marc Feldmann and Emeritus Professor Sir Ravinder N. Maini of The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College London, for their role in the discovery of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, or TNF-alpha, as an effective therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
2011:Napoleone Ferrara, Genentech Fellow, for his research on angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel formation that plays a key role in cancer proliferation and a number of other diseases. Dr. Ferrara’s discoveries opened the door to the development of a new class of therapeutics to combat a serious eye disorder and contributed to the development of new oncology therapeutics.
2015:Bert Vogelstein, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, for his breakthroughs in oncology research.
2018: James P. Allison, Professor and Chair, Department of Immunology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, for pioneering a novel and effective strategy to harness the immune system for treating solid tumor cancers.
2019:Franz-Ulrich Hartl, Director, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Arthur Horwich, Sterling Professor of Genetics and Professor of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, for their revolutionary insights into chaperone-mediated protein folding.
