Prix Galien USA Welcomes Eighth Nobel Laureate to its Prestigious Award...( Prix Galien USA 2008 Announced fo...),Health

Prix Galien USA 2008 Announced for September 24, Nominations Now Being Accepted

NEW YORK, April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nobel Laureate Walter Gilbert, Ph.D., the Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and founder of Biogen, has joined fellow Nobel Laureates on the committee responsible for awarding the most coveted prize in biopharmaceutical research. Prix Galien USA 2008 (http://www.prix-galien-usa.com) will be held on Wednesday, September 24, 2008, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Gilbert will bring substantial expertise in molecular biology to the Prix Galien USA committee in the wake of the death of one of its founding members, Dr. Joshua Lederburg, in February 2008. In 1980, Gilbert won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry after developing a technology that greatly expedited DNA sequencing and helped open doors for today's techniques that allow the sequencing of entire genomes, including the human genome. Gilbert also co-founded several major biotech companies in addition to Biogen including Myriad Genetics, Memory Pharmaceuticals and Paratek Pharmaceuticals. He serves on the Board of Scientific Governors of The Scripps Research Institute and is a managing partner in BioVentures Investors.

"It is an honor to welcome Wally as the eighth Nobel Laureate to join the committee responsible for selecting those individuals and organizations that are leaders in excellence and innovation in the field of biomedical research and development," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Prix Galien committee chair, who is a New York University research professor of medicine and editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal. "His experience, expertise and perspective greatly enrich what is already the most qualified group of people assembled for administering the Prix Galien USA."

The Prix Galien USA is awarded in two categories that offer broad i
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