TWO pioneers in the genetics of disease and a doctor who showed that vitamin A can save children's lives have been awarded this year's Albert Lasker Awards.

The award for basic medical research goes to Mark S. Ptashne, a molecular biologist who recently joined the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. While at Harvard University, he did groundbreaking studies of how genes are turned on and off. Many genetic diseases are caused by defects in this gene regulation.

An award for special achievement in medical science will be given to Dr. Victor A. McKusick of Johns Hopkins University, who was called the father of medical genetics.

Dr. Alfred Sommer, also of Johns Hopkins, will receive the award for clinical medical research. He showed that vitamin A deficiency, which causes blindness, also leads to death from infectious disease, and he demonstrated that low-dose vitamin supplements can prevent this.