EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A biochemist from El Paso working at UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in Dallas has won the Lasker Award, which is considered “America’s Nobel” and one of the highest honors in medicine.
Biochemist Dr. Steve McKnight, working with a colleague in Germany, uncovered how certain proteins they dubbed “ugly duckling” proteins contribute to serious neurological disorders, according to a news release by UTSW.
UTSW said Dr. McKnight’s studies – focused on proteins of low sequence complexity – have revealed how these disordered proteins can reversibly self-associate to control innumerable forms of dynamic cellular organization and aggregate in a manner that leads to neurologic and neurodegenerative disease.
“His work over the past three decades has exemplified our institution’s commitment to curiosity-driven research by advancing our understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms, which ultimately inform new approaches to disease treatment,” said Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern. “We are thrilled to see the importance of his fundamental discoveries into the role of low complexity proteins in basic cellular functions recognized by this year’s Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
Among Dr. McKnight’s accomplishments before earning this prestigious award, his early studies of gene regulation led to the identification of the leucine zipper, a structural motif in transcription factors – proteins that regulate gene expression. This discovery helped clarify how the expression of cellular genes is turned on and off, according to UTSW.
UTSW said he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Virginia. He did postdoctoral research at the Carnegie Institution of Washington before joining UT Southwestern in 1995.
“I want to thank the Lasker Foundation for this great honor,” Dr. McKnight, who holds the Distinguished Chair in Basic Biomedical Research at UT Southwestern, said. “I am also grateful to the colleagues and trainees who’ve worked with me over the years and to the leadership of UT Southwestern, who have created the environment for scientists to probe challenging and important questions.”
Dr. McKnight shares the 2025 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Dirk Görlich, Ph.D., a German biochemist who is director of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. Dr. Görlich is also being honored for his work on proteins of low sequence complexity, according to UTSW.
The Lasker Awards, which will be presented on Friday, Sept. 19, in New York, recognize significant advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of human disease and are regarded as the country’s preeminent biomedical research prize, according to UTSW.
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