HEALTH REPORT - Medical Award Honors Two Scientists Who Foun

HEALTH REPORT - Medical Award Honors Two Scientists Who Found Stem¹ Cells
By George Grow

Broadcast: Wednesday, October 05, 2005

I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report.

Two scientists in Canada have won a major award for their discovery of stem cells. They received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research at ceremonies in New York City.

Stem cells are able to develop into other kinds of cells or tissue. Scientists are examining adult and embryonic² stem cells in hopes of treating different diseases.

 
Ernest A. McCulloch
The winners are Ernest McCulloch and James Till of the Ontario Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto. They first identified a stem cell in the blood-forming system. They showed that a single kind of bone marrow³ stem cell could create the three main kinds of blood cells. Their work also explained the effects of treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers.

The two professors started as scientists at the Ontario Cancer Institute nearly fifty years ago. They will share fifty thousand dollars in prize money with their award.

Two British scientists won the Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research. It

 
James E. Till
honors Sir Edwin Southern of Oxford⁴ University and Sir Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester for their work in genetics.

Professor Southern invented a process that lets scientists identify a single gene⁵ in a genetic⁶ map, or genome. Professor Jeffreys used this process to develop a way to identify genetic differences between individuals. This is known as genetic fingerprinting⁷. The two scientists also will share fifty thousand dollars.

The winner this year of the Lasker Public Service Award is Nancy Brinker. She is not a scientist. She started the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She did it to keep a promise to her sister, Susan Komen, who died of breast cancer.

Since nineteen eighty-two, the group has raised seven hundred fifty million dollars for research and other efforts to end breast cancer. Nancy Brinker has had the disease also.

The Lasker Public Service Award comes without money.

This is the sixtieth year of the Lasker Awards. They are known as America's Nobel Prizes. In fact, seventy winners have later received a Nobel.

The Laskers were a wealthy husband and wife. Albert died in nineteen fifty-three; Mary died in nineteen ninety-four. She led efforts for many years to expand support for medical science.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by George Grow.  I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 stem   

n.茎，干，船首，词干，血统；vt.堵住，阻止，抽去梗；vi.起源于，发生

参考例句：

• Cut the stem cleanly,just beneath a leaf joint.把茎切整齐点，正好切在叶根下。
• The ship was in a blaze from stem to stern.整艘船从头到尾都着火了。

2 embryonic   

adj.胚胎的

参考例句：

• It is still in an embryonic stage.它还处于萌芽阶段。
• The plan,as yet,only exists in embryonic form.这个计划迄今为止还只是在酝酿之中。

3 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

4 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

5 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

6 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

7 fingerprinting   

v.指纹( fingerprint的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Institutions from banks to pawnshops are fingerprinting to authenticate transactions. 从银行到当铺，都在使用指纹识别对交易进行验证。 来自互联网
• In addition, a digital fingerprinting algorithm based on binary codes is described. 介绍了一种二进制指纹编码方案。 来自互联网