$500,000 prize for genetics research

Albany (New York): A biologist whose genetics research led to exploration of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's was awarded the richest U.S. prize in medicine and biomedical research on Friday.

The $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize lauded Seymour Benzer for laying the foundation for neurological sciences with research in the 1960s that countered the then-prevailing belief that human behavior was shaped primarily by environment.

"The impact is opening up the whole idea that behavior can be dissected by manipulation, studying the genes," said Benzer, 84, of the California Institute of Technology. "It's an entire cycle. Every step of the way is under genetic control," he added.

In perhaps his most well known work, Benzer and a student used fruit flies to study how genes affect sleep patterns. Normal fruit flies emerge at dawn each day, while mutated genes caused certain fruit flies to become active at different times. Benzer and his student corrected the sleep patterns of those fruit flies by injecting genes from normal fruit flies.

Benzer "paved the way for scientists to uncover links between genes and human behavior which have resulted in our improved ability to treat diseases of the brain and central nervous system," said James J. Barba, president and chief executive officer of Albany Medical Center.

Among medical awards, the Albany prize is second only to the $1.4 million Nobel Prize in cash value.

Benzer also made discoveries that bridged the gap between DNA and the structure of the gene, which ultimately led to the Human Genome Project, an effort to map and sequence the three billion letters in the human genome.

His interest in neurogenetics (the study of the genetic factors that contribute to the development of neurological disorders) followed the birth of his second daughter, who he said behaved radically different from his first child.

Benzer received his master's and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Purdue University.

The Albany Medical Prize award was established in 2000 by a $50 million gift from the late Morris 'Marty' Silverman, a New York City businessman who wanted to encourage health and biomedical research.

Past recipients of the prize include Stanley N. Cohen and Herbert W. Boyer, whose research discovering gene cloning paved the way for the modern biotechnology industry, and Anthony S. Fauci, who was recognised in 2002 for his seminal work on AIDS and other diseases of the immune system.