LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A microbiologist at the University of Kansas has won a national award for his research into bacteria cells.
Joe Lutkenhaus, a distinguished professor of microbiology, molecular genetics and immunology at Kansas, has been named one of three winners of Columbia University’s 2012 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Lutkenhaus won the honor along with Richard M. Losick of Harvard University and Lucy Shapiro of the Stanford University School of Medicine. Columbia announced the awards last week.
Lutkenhaus says his discoveries showed that bacterial cells are more similar to the larger cells found in plants and animals than scientists had known before.
Of the 87 people to win the honor for research in biology and biochemistry, 42 have gone on to win a Nobel Prize.
