19th annual Double Helix Medals dinner raises $7 million

NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 14, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) held its 19th annual Double Helix Medals dinner (DHMD) at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The event, emceed by CBS journalist Lesley Stahl, honored Alisa and Daniel Doctoroff and 2023 Nobel laureate Dr. Katalin Karikó. With the support of the event chairs and donors, the gala raised $7 million for biology research and education at CSHL.

Alisa and Daniel Doctoroff are leaders of Target ALS, an innovative nonprofit that has sparked dramatic progress in research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Before being diagnosed with this neurodegenerative disease, Mr. Doctoroff served as New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding and as CEO and president of Bloomberg L.P. He is the founder and board chair of Target ALS.

"My goal for Target ALS is our mission statement, 'Everyone lives.' We are in sight of that goal," says Mr. Doctoroff. "We can see the day coming, and there are smaller goals that will get us there," adds Mrs. Doctoroff. "We are, one by one, achieving and attacking those goals and getting to the point where everyone lives with ALS." 

Dr. Katalin Karikó is a winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and a professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary. Her revolutionary biomedical advancements at the University of Pennsylvania and later at the pharmaceutical company BioNTech created the blueprint for mRNA vaccines, saving millions of lives. Despite this success, she remains humble as ever.

"Getting a Nobel Prize, I realized that attention is on the science and the scientist," Dr. Karikó says. "I receive a lot of awards, but every time, I emphasize that a lot of scientists contributed. I want to be remembered as an honest, cheerful, happy scientist. That's it."

The 2024 DHMD was chaired by Dr. Neri Oxman and Mr. William Ackman, Ms. Jamie Nicholls and Mr. O. Francis Biondi, Mr. and Mrs. David Boies, Dr. Albert Bourla and Pfizer, Inc., Ms. Barbara Amonson and Dr. Vincent Della Pietra, Drs. Pamela Hurst-Della Pietra and Stephen Della Pietra, Mr. and Mrs. John Desmarais, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey E. Kelter, Dr. and Mrs. Tomislav Kundic, Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Lindsay, Ms. Ivana Stolnik-Lourie and Dr. Robert Lourie, Dr. Marcia Kramer Mayer, Dr. and Mrs. Howard L. Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Secunda, Dr. Marilyn H. Simons, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Taubman.

Since 2006, the DHMD has raised over $67 million to support CSHL's research and education programs.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,000 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu

SOURCE Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory