BEERSE, Belgium, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Johnson & Johnson today announced that Craig C. Mello, Ph. D., a professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has been named the inaugural recipient of The Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. Dr. Mello was selected for his role in the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) and the elucidation of its biological functions. The Award will be presented to Dr. Mello today at The Dr. Paul Janssen Biomedical Research Scientific Symposium and Award Program in Beerse, Belgium, which also commemorates the 80th anniversary of Dr. Janssen's birth.
