David Huang, M.D., Ph.D., receives Lasker Award for transformative imaging technology

Prize dubbed 'America's Nobel' recognizes wide use of optical coherence tomography to manage eye disease, prevent blindness

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States' most distinguished biomedical research award is being given to Oregon Health & Science University physician-scientist David Huang, M.D., Ph.D., for co-inventing an imaging technology that routinely helps prevent blindness and is increasingly used to diagnose and treat conditions of the heart, brain, skin and more.

Huang is receiving the 2023 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award as a co-inventor of optical coherence tomography, or OCT, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has announced.

"It's a great honor to receive the Lasker-DeBakey Award with my fellow OCT co-inventors," said Huang, director of research and associate director of the OHSU Casey Eye Institute, and professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering in the OHSU School of Medicine.

"OCT may not be as well-known as other major imaging modalities, such as MRI or CT scans, but if you have a serious eye condition, chances are that you received an OCT scan to help diagnose and manage your condition," he said. "I am proud that millions of people have benefited from a technology that I helped invent three decades ago."

The award is one of three that the Lasker Foundation gives annually to recognize leaders who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of human disease. Lasker prizes are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels," as 95 Lasker award winners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.

Huang shares this year's Lasker-DeBakey award with fellow OCT co-inventors James G. Fujimoto, Ph.D., and Eric A. Swanson, M.S., both of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They will be formally recognized at a Sept. 29 gala ceremony in New York City.

Click here for the full release — including information about Dr. Huang's background, his OCT invention, and OCT uses in medicine — from OHSU News.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Huang and his Center for Ophthalmic Optics & Lasers (COOL lab) at OHSU.

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SOURCE Oregon Health & Science University