Dr. Roeland Nusse: Gairdner Award Recipient and Bio-Techne Board of Directors Member

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Apr 01, 2020, 16:01 ET

MINNEAPOLIS, April 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) today announced a member of its board of directors, Dr. Roeland Nusse, has become one of the 2020 Canada Gairdner International Award recipients.

The Gairdner Foundation was established in 1957 with the main goal of recognizing and rewarding international excellence in fundamental research that impacts human health. Annually, seven awards are given: five Canada Gairdner International Awards for biomedical research, one John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, specifically for impact on global health issues, and one Canada Gairdner Wightman Award, reserved for a Canadian. To date 395 awards have been bestowed on laureates from 35 countries and of those awardees, 92 have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes. Laureates each receive Can$100,000.

Dr. Nusse was one of five recent recipients of the Canada Gairdner International Award "for pioneering work on the Wnt signaling pathway and its importance in development, cancer and stem cells" announced on March 31, 2020. Among Dr. Nusse's contributions is the original discovery of the first Wnt gene (together with Harold Varmus) as an oncogene in mouse breast cancer. Afterwards Dr. Nusse identified the Drosophila Wnt homolog as a key developmental gene, Wingless. This led to the appreciation of the links between normal cell development and cancer when these pathways are dis-regulated. Dr. Nusse used the fruit fly (Drosophila) genetics to elucidate the function of beta-catenin as a mediator of Wnt signaling and the Frizzleds as Wnt receptors, work done in collaboration with Jeremy Nathans.

Chuck Kummeth, President and CEO of Bio-Techne stated: "We are honored to have Dr. Nusse on our board of directors. His efforts in establishing the key elements of the now recognized Wnt pathway is a great achievement and should be celebrated. Dr. Nusse's successful purification of active Wnt proteins, and the demonstration of their lipid-modifications endows these molecules as stem cell growth factors, enabled Bio-Techne to incorporate these proteins in its vast portfolio of products that promote life science research. We appreciate Dr. Nusse's ongoing dedication to his research and in providing sound guidance to Bio-Techne."

Dr. Nusse joins an impressive list of past recipients of the Gairdner Award, including Drs. Anthony Fauci, Shinya Yamanaka, Francis Collins, Jennifer Doudna, Francis Crick, Tak Mak, Janet Rowley, Harold Varmus, Frederick Sanger, Paul Berg and many others accomplished scientists who shaped our current science knowledge. Many Gairdner prize winners went on to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

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SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation