2023 Winners

The three esteemed recipients of the 2023 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research are scientists whose research has advanced the study and understanding of microbiomes and bacteria and how they communicate in the body and cause or prevent disease.

The Albany Prize is made possible by the Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundation

 

Bonnie L. Bassler, PhD

Bonnie L. Bassler, PhD

Bonnie L. Bassler, PhD

The Squibb Professor & Chair, Department of Molecular Biology
Princeton University
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Dr. Bassler’s research lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication. This process is called quorum sensing. Bassler’s research is paving the way to the development of novel therapies for combating bacteria by disrupting quorum-sensing-mediated communication.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD

The Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor
Director, The Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Dr. Gordon revolutionized our understanding of the field of human microbiome research and the microbial origins of health and disease, including our nutritional status. He is known as the father of microbiome research, and his work has transformed the understanding of human health and physiology, including how it is shaped by the gut microbiome, and how non-communicable diseases have microbiome origins.

Dennis Kasper, MD

Dennis L. Kasper, MD

Dennis L. Kasper, MD

William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine and
Professor of Immunology, Harvard Medical School
Senior Physician, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

For more than four decades Dr. Kasper has delineated the central role of the mammalian microbiota in immune system development, maturation, and regulation. His achievements, including identification of immunomodulatory molecules from the microbiome and demonstration of their potential to treat certain immune-mediated diseases, contributed to the foundation of a dynamic new research field.