ANITSCHKOW PRIZE IN ATHEROSCLEROSIS RESEARCH
Professor Michael S. Brown is Awarded the 2010 Anitschkow Prize Research by the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) for his lifelong, outstanding research in the field of lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis. As an accomplished M.D., he undertook research studies initially in biochemistry andenzymology in the laboratory of
Earl R. Stadtman. Since 1972 in Dallas (Texas), he has collaborated with exceptional success with Professor Joseph L. Goldstein (M.D.), a close friend and distinguished molecular geneticist. Professors Brown and Goldstein
received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985. Together, they unraveled the molecular basis of familial hypercholesterolemia and documented a series of functional mutations in the LDL-receptor gene. The receptor was
purified, cloned and subsequently its cellular regulation was dissected at the molecular level. These studies laid the basis for our understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms which underlie statin therapy, and opened new horizons in the field of the transcriptional regulation of key genes of lipid metabolism. Professors Brown and Goldstein discovered the sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs), key members of a transcription factor family that controls cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis as well as insulin- induced energy storage. Furthermore, they described the unique transport-dependent proteolytic activation of SREBPs following identification of two proteases and Insigs, the latter controlling the ER retention of SREBPs.
Michael Brown has excelled as a teacher to several generations of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and as such is an invaluable role model for many young scientists. Together with Joseph Goldstein, he has elegantly shown what it means to successfully maintain superlative science over decades by elucidating complex biological mechanisms and translating them into clinically-meaningful applications. Last not least, Michael Brown
and Joseph Goldstein continue to demonstrate the importance of teamwork in basic scientific research. The award of the Anitschkow Prize 2010 to Professor Michael S. Brown is a mark of the great respect of European colleagues for his seminal and brilliant contributions to the field of cholesterol metabolism and atherosclerosis.