But Ostman said his guess for this year was on Kevan Shawkat, an American biologist who figured out how to block the KRAS cancer gene behind about a third of cancers, including treating lung, colon and pancreatic tumors. Challenging involved.
T-cell therapy and work on the human microbiome could also be contenders for cancer treatment, said David Pendlebury, head of the Clarivate Analytics group that identifies Nobel-worthy research. “There are more people deserving Nobel Prizes than there are,” he told AFP.
Östman’s colleague at SR, Lars Broström, singled out two American biologists, Stanislaus Leibler and Michael Elowitz, for their work on synthetic gene circuits, which founded the field of synthetic biology.
This enables scientists to redesign organisms by engineering them for new capabilities. But Brostrom said this area could be considered controversial, raising ethical questions about “where to draw the line in life creation.”
