The 1999 ASCI Award was presented to Dr. Richard Klausner at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in Chicago, Illinois, on April 24, 1999, for the discovery of key mechanisms that regulate metal metabolism and intracellular trafficking.
Dr. Klausner received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his medical degree from Duke University. After post-graduate medical training at Harvard, he began his research career at the National Cancer Institute in 1979, where he was appointed Director in 1995. Dr. Klausner is well known for his contributions to multiple aspects of cell and molecular biology and cancer research. Over the past five years, he has been recognized as one of the 20 most highly cited scientists in the world in this burgeoning area of biology and biomedical research. Dr. Klausner’s research has illuminated the genetics and biochemistry of metals as essential but toxic nutrients for virtually all forms of life, has illuminated the pathways by which molecules traffic and speak to each other within the cell, and has described novel mechanisms by which genes are regulated. His work has been recognized with numerous honors and awards including the Outstanding Investigator Award from the American Federation of Clinical Research and the William Damashek Prize for Major Discoveries of Hematology. In 1993, Dr. Klausner was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Klausner has been the President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and is the author of over 280 scientific articles and several books. His recent work on the VHL oncogene which plays a major role in human kidney cancer has opened a new approach to studies of growth regulation and cancer.