University of Iowa professor wins prestigious award for his work on cystic fibrosis
University of Iowa professor Dr. Michael Welsh was rewarded for his lifetime of study of cystic fibrosis with the prestigious Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine.
The Shaw Prize, known as the "Nobel Prize of the East," was established in 2002 by Hong Kong philanthropist Run Run Shaw. The prizes are awarded annually by the Shaw Prize Foundation and "dedicated to furthering societal progress."
Welsh, who teaches internal medicine, was honored for his work alongside Paul Negulescu, senior vice president of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“I was excited to receive the news. It just got me thinking immediately about new things really, about how strikingly the lives of people with cystic fibrosis improved,” Welsh told the Press-Citizen.
Welsh has discovered the underlying defects that cause cystic fibrosis and simultaneously identified new medicines to treat the disease. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder that affects the lungs and digestive system. It is rare, but life-threatening.
“This is going to be the kind of disease that people will be able to live with and have either a normal length of life or close to it and just a marked increase in the quality of life,” Welsh said.
When Welsh first started studying cystic fibrosis, he said most of its sufferers would not make it to their late 20s. But, with new medicine, the life expectancy has increased.
“One of my colleagues, a pediatric pulmonary doctor, was telling me they were taking care of a kid in high school. And he had him in the hospital twice, treating his lung disease. And last year, he ran at the state cross country meet at Fort Dodge. That's just unheard of. It's just incredible,” Welsh said.
Welsh earned his medical degree from Iowa in 1974. He has taught at the university since 1981.
The Shaw Prize carries a $1.2 million award, in addition to a gold medal and a certificate.
A majority of Welsh’s research included studying the mutation in the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, as well as what causes certain symptoms of the disease, which can include coughs and lung infections.
“We worked on how it's broken. And then the last important thing for this award was, we realized that it was possible to fix it. And that was really important because it says, if you want to try and make a drug for something, it gave you the confidence that we might be able to develop a drug that would fix it. That's what we did,” Welsh said.
Welsh said he will continue to study cystic fibrosis in hopes of discovering new medicine as current medicine will only work for 85% of people. Shaw said he hopes to close the gap and make sure everyone who has cystic fibrosis can get medication.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa professor wins the Shaw Prize award for work on cystic fibrosis
