
Lynne Elizabeth Maquat
Wolf Prize Laureate in Medicine 2021

The 2021 wolf prize in Medicine is awarded to:
Lynne Elizabeth MaquatLynne E. Maquat, Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Rochester
Professor Lynne Elizabeth Maquat
University of Rochester
The 2021 Wolf prize in Medicine is awarded to Joan Steitz, Lynne Maquat and Adrian Krainer for fundamental discoveries in RNA biology that have the potential to better human lives. They have made ground-breaking discoveries in RNA regulatory mechanisms demonstrating that RNA is not a passive template between DNA and protein, but rather plays a dominant role in regulating and diversifying gene expression.
The 2021 Wolf prize in Medicine is awarded to Lynne Maquat For discovering a mechanism that destroys mutant mRNA in cells – “non-sense mediated mRNA decay (NMD)”.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) takes genetic instructions from DNA and uses them to create proteins that carry out multiple cellular functions. NMD is a quality control mechanism that removes flawed messenger RNA molecules that, if left intact, would lead to the production of abnormal proteins that could be toxic to cells and initiate disease. Cells also use this pathway (NMD) to better respond to changing environmental conditions. NMD functions in one-third of inherited disorders, such as cystic fibrosis, and in one-third of acquired diseases, including many forms of cancer. Her work has furthered our understanding of the molecular basis of human disease and provides valuable information to help physicians implement “personalized” or “precision” medicine by treating the disease mutation that is specific to each individual patient.
