David Fajgenbaum, a Penn Medicine immunologist who gained notoriety for saving his own life by repurposing an existing drug, has won the prestigious John Scott Award, writes Sarah Gantz for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
He will be presented with the award, one of the oldest science awards in the United States, and the accompanying $10,000 cash prize by the Philadelphia-based American Philosophical Society in November.
This year, the award honors three scientists whose work has produced innovations that advance public health. In addition to Fajgenbaum, Bonnie L. Bassler, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, and Robert K. Prud’homme, a chemical engineer at Princeton University, are also being recognized.
Fajgenbaum was diagnosed with Idiopathic Multicentric Castleman Disease, a rare and deadly condition, during his third year at Penn 15 years ago. He began storing his blood samples in a campus lab fridge and then monitored them for abnormalities.
In one class, he learned about a drug prescribed to organ transplant recipients that could suppress a protein he found to be dangerously high in his own tests. He persuaded his physicians to try the drug, and it worked.
He later wrote a memoir about the journey, Chasing My Cure.
Read more about David Fajgenbaum and the work that led to the award he is about to receive in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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