Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

The breakthrough prize in life sciences is an award since 2013 Award for research achievements in life sciences and medicine (Life Sciences) . There are six award winners per year who also belong to the selection committee for future award winners. Eleven award winners were named in the first year.

The award is endowed with three million US dollars for each winner. It was donated by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan from Facebook , Sergey Brin from Google , Juri Milner (who is also the donor of the similarly high-endowed Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics ) and Anne Wojcicki (founder of 23andMe ). The foundation's chairman is Arthur D. Levinson of Apple and Genentech .

Other similarly lavish prizes from the foundation are the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics .

Award winners

• 2013:
  • Cornelia Bargmann , for the genetics of neural circuits and the behavior and discovery of a lead molecule in the development of the nervous system
  • David Botstein , for linkage mapping of inherited diseases in humans with DNA - polymorphisms
  • Lewis C. Cantley , for the discovery of PI 3-Kinase and its role in cancer metabolism
  • Hans Clevers , for clarifying the Wnt signaling pathway in stem cells and cancer
  • Napoleone Ferrara , for discoveries in angiogenesis that led to therapies for cancer and eye diseases
  • Eric S. Lander , for discovering general principles for gene discovery for diseases in humans
  • Titia de Lange , for research on telomeres , how they protect chromosome ends and their role in genome instability in cancer
  • Charles L. Sawyers , for cancer genes and therapies tailored to them
  • Bert Vogelstein , for Genetics of Cancer and Tumor Suppressor Genes
  • Robert A. Weinberg , for characterization of human cancer genes
  • Shin'ya Yamanaka , for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
• 2014
  • James P. Allison , for discovering T cell control blockade as a cancer therapy
  • Mahlon DeLong , for describing the dysfunctional circuits in Parkinson's disease and thus laying the foundations for deep brain stimulation
  • Michael N. Hall , for the discovery of the protein kinase TOR (Target of Rapamycin, in mammals mTOR ) and its role in the regulation of cell growth
  • Robert Langer , for his discoveries that have led to the development of new biomaterials and systems for the targeted release of active ingredients
  • Richard Lifton , for discovering the genes and biochemical mechanisms that underlie arterial hypertension
  • Alexander Varshavsky , for discovering the determining molecular and biological factors of intracellular protein degradation
• 2015
  • C. David Allis , for his discovery of covalent histone modifications and their central role in gene regulation
  • Alim Louis Benabid , for developing the deep brain stimulation that revolutionized the treatment of Parkinson's disease
  • Victor Ambros and
  • Gary Ruvkun , for discovering the microRNA
  • Jennifer A. Doudna and
  • Emmanuelle Charpentier , for the development of a method for genetic manipulation, the CRISPR / Cas method
• 2016
  • Edward S. Boyden and
  • Karl Deisseroth , for the development and application of optogenetics
  • John Hardy for discovering mutations in the amyloid precursor protein as a cause of early onset Alzheimer's disease
  • Helen Hobbs , for discovering genetic variants that affect cholesterol levels
  • Svante Pääbo , for the sequencing of ancient DNA ( paleogenetics )
• 2017
  • Stephen J. Elledge , for his contributions to the mechanisms by which damage is detected in DNA
  • Harry F. Noller , for discovering the centrality of RNA in the ribosomes
  • Roeland Nusse , for discovering the Wnt signaling pathway
  • Yoshinori Ohsumi , for clarifying autophagy
  • Huda Yahya Zoghbi , for discovering the causes of several neurodegenerative diseases
• 2018
  • Joanne Chory , for discovering the regulation of plant growth
  • Peter Walter and
  • Kazutoshi Mori , for clarifying the unfolded protein response
  • Kim Nasmyth , for explaining the separation of chromosomes during cell division
  • Don W. Cleveland , for clarifying the molecular pathology of a form of ALS and developing a therapy (in an animal model)
• 2019
  • C. Frank Bennett and Adrian R. Krainer , for developing antisense oligonucleotide therapy for spinal muscular atrophy
  • Angelika Amon , for her work on aneuploidy and chromosome mutations
  • Xiaowei Zhuang , for the development of high-resolution microscopy ( Photoactivated Localization Microscopy , STORM)
  • Zhijian Chen , for discovering GMP-AMP cyclic synthase (cGAMP synthase)
• 2020
  • Jeffrey M. Friedman , for discovering a hormonal system that regulates food intake
  • Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur L. Horwich , for clarifying the function of the chaperones
  • David Julius , for his contributions to the study of pain perception
  • Virginia Man-Yee Lee for discovering the TDP43

Web links

• official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Breakthrough Prize - Winners Of The 2020 Breakthrough Prize In Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics And Mathematics Announced. In: breakthroughprize.org. September 5, 2019, accessed September 5, 2019 .