Kyoto Prize To Anthony Pawson

ANTHONY J. PAWSON, a Canadian molecular biologist, is among the winners of the 2008 Kyoto Prize in Basic Science for his studies of cellular communication at the molecular level. He will receive a gold medal and a cash gift of approximately $460,000 at a ceremony in Kyoto, Japan, on Nov. 10.

Given annually by Japan’s Inamori Foundation, the Kyoto prize honors people who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of humankind in the areas of advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy.

Pawson is a principal investigator at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, in Toronto, and a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto. He discovered that intracellular signal transduction is mediated by protein-protein interactions and that these interactions involve specific domains. Pawson identified the first of such domains, Src homology 2, and opened up the field for many other domains to be discovered.