GRAND RAPIDS ? Van Andel Institute last week presented its annual Daniel Nathans Memorial Award to two scientists instrumental in investigating human papillomavirus and its links to cervical cancer.

Harald zur Hausen, M.D., whose laboratory identified infection by HPV as the main cause of cervical cancer, and Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., whose studies helped lead to the development of a novel way to prepare highly successful vaccines that prevent infection by these viruses, received the award today in a ceremony at the Institute.

?The war on cancer began with a promise to develop antiviral vaccines that would prevent malignant disease,? said Van Andel Research Institute Director George F. Vande Woude, Ph.D. ?The selection of this year?s awardees is for contributions that allow this promise to be fulfilled.?

The Daniel Nathans Memorial Award is conferred by Van Andel Institute?s Board of Scientific Advisors for contributions to biomedical and cancer research. The awardee?s contributions must be far-reaching and significantly benefit public health. The award was established in 2000 to honor the late Dr. Daniel Nathans, a 1978 recipient of the Nobel Prize and a founding member of the Institute?s Board of Scientific Advisors, who died in 1999.

zur Hausen is Professor Emeritus of the German Cancer Research Center. He is a native of Gelsenkirchen-Buer Germany, studied medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Hamburg and Dusseldorf and received his M.D. in 1960. He is the discoverer or co-discoverer of numerous novel virus types including a significant number of HPV types, Adeno-Associated Virus type 5, African Green Monkey Epstein-Barr Virus and many others. He proposed the role of papillomavirus in the etiology of cervical cancer in the early 1970?s and proved their role a decade later.

Lowy is Chief, Laboratory of Cellular Oncology, Deputy Director, Division of Basic Sciences & Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. He received his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine in 1968. His work, with long-time associate John Schiller, Ph.D., on virus-like particles (VLP?s) has led to the development of the HPV VLP vaccine. Although several groups have contributed to the development of HPV VLP vaccines, the quality and impact of Lowy?s work stands out. Commercial versions of the vaccine have been approved by the FDA and should have a major impact in cancer prevention since HPV infection is the major cause of cervical cancer.

?This award emphasizes the importance of basic research and how it leads to an application that prevents human cancer,? said Vande Woude.

Past recipients of the Daniel Nathans Memorial Award include: Richard D. Klausner, M.D., 2000, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., 2001, Lawrence H. Einhorn , M.D., 2002, Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D., 2003, Brian Druker, M.D., 2004, Tony Hunter, Ph.D., and Tony Pawson, Ph.D., 2005.

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