Harvard Medical School Researchers Awarded Prestigious $1.3M Champalimaud Vision Award

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 (Lisbon, Portugal) Six Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers were among the recipients of the 2014 Antnio Champalimaud Vision Award, the highest distinction in ophthalmology and visual science.

The award was given for the development of anti-angiogenic therapy for retinal disease. The researchers include Joan Whitten Miller, M.D., Evangelos S. Gragoudas, M.D., and Patricia A. DAmore, Ph.D., MBA, of Massachusetts Eye and Ear; Lloyd Paul Aiello, M.D., Ph.D., of Mass. Eye and Ear and Joslin Diabetes Center; George L. King, M.D., of Joslin Diabetes Center; and Anthony P. Adamis, M.D., of Genentech, who is also affiliated with HMS Ophthalmology and Mass. Eye and Ear. Napoleone Ferrara, M.D., of University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, also received the award.

The 2014 Antnio Champalimaud Vision Laureates were honored on Sept. 10, 2014 during a ceremony held at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal. Presiding at the ceremony was His Excellency Anbal Antnio Cavaco Silva, President of the Portuguese Republic.

Established by The Champalimaud Foundation in 2006, the Antnio Champalimaud Vision Award honors outstanding contributions to the preservation and understanding of sight. In even-numbered years, the award is given for vision research, and in alternate years it recognizes efforts to alleviate visual problems in developing countries or through humanitarian endeavors.

Award recipients are selected by an international jury panel that includes two Nobel Laureates and other prominent figures. The Champalimaud Vision Award is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for Vision and with its 1 million ($1.3 million USD) purse, it is among the worlds largest scientific and humanitarian prizes.

In the 1990s, the 2014 Champalimaud Award Laureates worked in parallel and in collaboration to identify vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as the major trigger for angiogenesis in the eye. Angiogenesis, or blood vessel growth, underlies the pathology of various blinding retinal disorders, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy. Abnormal vascular growth a process called neovascularizationabove or below the retina allows fluid to leak into the central retina, causing vision loss.

The researchers then demonstrated that blocking VEGF could suppress ocular angiogenesis. This biomedical breakthrough led to a new class of ophthalmic anti-VEGF drugs, which first became available in the United States December 2004 with the introduction of pegaptanib (Macugen) for the neovascular or wet form of AMD. Multiple ophthalmic drugs targeting VEGF activity have since followed, including the widely used ranibizumab (Lucentis), introduced June 2006, and aflibercept (Eylea), introduced November 2011. Bevacizumab (Avastin), an anti-VEGF drug originally developed for cancer and introduced February 2004, is also widely used for treating retinal disease.

The development of anti-VEGF therapy for retinal disease is considered one of the top biomedical advances of the past decade. In 2006, the development of ranibizumab for neovascular AMD was featured in Breakthrough of the Year, a list of the 10 most significant scientific developments compiled annually by the journal Science.