This year, the 25th Steven C. Beering Award will be presented to Bert W. O’Malley, M.D., recipient of the National Medal for Science in 2008. Dr. O’Malley is a pioneer in biomedical research and will be honored for his contributions to the scientific understanding of the role hormones play in the development of disease.
Dr. O’Malley will receive the award and present the annual Beering Lecture at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 28 in the auditorium at the Riley Outpatient Center, 575 West Drive, on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.
His presentation will be about his fundamental discoveries that have led to the creation of artificial hormones and drugs that block inappropriate hormone actions in disease. These hormones, such as estrogen, have been found to have a significant role in a multitude of human illnesses and conditions, including breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis, premature puberty, infertility and skin disease.
The Beering Award was first presented in 1984 as a tribute to Steven C. Beering, M.D., who served as dean of the IU School of Medicine from 1974 to 1983 and then as president of Purdue University for 17 years, retiring in 2000. The award recognizes an individual for internationally recognized contributions to the advancement of biomedical or basic science.
Over the years, nominees for the Beering Award have represented the most notable of basic scientists whose research has encompassed everything from the neurotransmitters affect human behavior to the microscopic world of cells, genes and proteins.
Four Beering Award recipients have received one of the highest international honors for scientific discover, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They are:
• Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., a molecular biologist, received a 2009 Nobel Prize and the 2003 Beering Award.
• Harold E. Varmus, M.D., former director of the NIH and a genetics researcher, received the 1989 Nobel Prize and the 1997 Beering Award
• Edwin G. Krebs, M.D., a pharmacologist, and Edmond H. Fischer, Ph.D., a biochemist, jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in 1992 and the 1991 Beering Award
• Alfred G. Gilman, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular neuropharmacologist, was a 1994 Nobel Prize winner and a 1990 Beering Award recipient.
Dr. O’Malley is the Thomas C. Thompson Professor and chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and director of the Baylor Center for Reproductive Biology in Houston.
Dr. O’Malley will present “Pathways of Steroid Hormone Action” to the graduate, first- and second-year medical students at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Emerson Hall Auditorium at IUPUI. His topic for the Beering Award lecture will be “Nuclear Receptor Coactivators: Mechanisms and Medical Relevance.”