Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences: Winners by Year

Award years

• 2026

  • Albert Maguire, Jean Bennett, Katherine A. High

    For developing a therapy for inherited retinal degeneration that became the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease.

  • Bryan Traynor, Rosa Rademakers

    For the discovery of the most common genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia which charted the path for new mechanistic studies of these diseases.

  • Stuart H. Orkin, Swee Lay Thein

    For elucidating the mechanism driving the switch from fetal to adult hemoglobin and validating it as a therapeutic target for sickle-cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

• 2025

  • Daniel J. Drucker

    For the discovery and characterization of GLP-1 and revealing its physiology and potential in treating diabetes and obesity.

  • David R. Liu

    For developing base editing and prime editing, technologies that edit the DNA of living systems without cutting the DNA double helix, and rewrite segments of genes at their native locations, enabling the correction or replacement of virtually any mutation.

  • Stephen L. Hauser

    For establishing the role of B cells in multiple sclerosis and developing B-cell based treatments, and for revealing that Epstein-Barr virus infection is the leading risk for multiple sclerosis.

• 2024

  • Carl H. June

    for the development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy whereby the patient's T cells are modified to target and kill cancer cells.

  • Sabine Hadida

    for developing life-transforming drug combinations that repair the defective chloride channel protein in patients with cystic fibrosis.

  • Thomas Gasser

    for identifying GBA1 and LRRK2 as risk genes for Parkinson's disease, implicating autophagy and lysosomal biology as critical contributors to the pathogenesis of the disease.

• 2023

  • Clifford P. Brangwynne

    for discovering a fundamental mechanism of cellular organization mediated by phase separation of proteins and RNA into membraneless liquid droplets.

  • Demis Hassabis

    for developing a deep learning AI method that rapidly and accurately predicts the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequence..

  • Emmanuel Mignot

    for discovering that narcolepsy is caused by the loss of a small population of brain cells that make a wake-promoting substance, paving the way for the development of new treatments for sleep disorders..

• 2022

  • Jeffery W. Kelly

    for elucidating the molecular basis of neurodegenerative and cardiac transthyretin diseases, and for developing tafamidis, a drug that slows their progression.

  • Katalin Karikó

    for engineering modified RNA technology which enabled rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines.

  • Shankar Balasubramanian

    for the development of a robust and affordable method to determine DNA sequences on a massive scale, which has transformed the practice of science and medicine.

• 2021

  • Catherine Dulac

    for deconstructing the complex behavior of parenting to the level of cell-types and their wiring, and demonstrating that the neural circuits governing both male and female-specific parenting behaviors are present in both sexes.

  • David Baker

    for developing technology that allowed the design of proteins never seen before in nature, including novel proteins that have the potential for therapeutic intervention in human diseases.

  • Richard J. Youle

    for elucidating a quality control pathway that clears damaged mitochondria and thereby protects against Parkinson's Disease.

  • Yuk Ming Dennis Lo

    for discovering that fetal DNA is present in maternal blood and can be used for the prenatal testing of trisomy 21 and other genetic disorders

• 2020

  • Arthur L. Horwich, Franz-Ulrich Hartl

    for discovering functions of molecular chaperones in mediating protein folding and preventing protein aggregation.

  • David Julius

    for discovering molecules, cells, and mechanisms underlying pain sensation.

  • Jeffrey M. Friedman

    for the discovery of a new endocrine system through which adipose tissue signals the brain to regulate food intake.

  • Virginia Man-Yee Lee

    for discovering TDP43 protein aggregates in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and revealing that different forms of alpha-synuclein, in different cell types, underlie Parkinson's disease and Multiple System Atrophy.

• 2019

  • Angelika Amon

    for determining the consequences of aneuploidy, an abnormal chromosome number resulting from chromosome mis-segregation.

  • C. Frank Bennett

    for the development of an effective antisense oligonucleotide therapy for children with the neurodegenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy.

  • Xiaowei Zhuang

    for discovering hidden structures in cells by developing super-resolution imaging – a method that transcends the fundamental spatial resolution limit of light microscopy.

  • Zhijian Chen

    for elucidating how DNA triggers immune and autoimmune responses from the interior of a cell through the discovery of the DNA-sensing enzyme cGAS.

• 2018

  • Don W. Cleveland

    for elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of a type of inherited ALS, including the role of glia in neurodegeneration, and for establishing antisense oligonucleotide therapy in animal models of ALS and Huntington disease.

  • Joanne Chory

    for discovering how plants optimize their growth, development, and cellular structure to transform sunlight into chemical energy.

  • Kim Nasmyth

    for elucidating the sophisticated mechanism that mediates the perilous separation of duplicated chromosomes during cell division and thereby prevents genetic diseases such as cancer.

  • Peter Walter

    for elucidating the unfolded protein response, a cellular quality-control system that detects disease-causing unfolded proteins and directs cells to take corrective measures.

• 2017

  • Harry F. Noller

    for discovering the centrality of RNA in forming the active centers of the ribosome, the fundamental machinery of protein synthesis in all cells, thereby connecting modern biology to the origin of life and also explaining how many natural antibiotics disrupt protein synthesis.

  • Huda Zoghbi

    for discoveries of the genetic causes and biochemical mechanisms of spinocerebellar ataxia and Rett syndrome, findings that have provided insight into the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neurological diseases.

  • Roel Nusse

    for pioneering research on the Wnt pathway, one of the crucial intercellular signaling systems in development, cancer and stem cell biology.

  • Stephen Elledge

    for elucidating how eukaryotic cells sense and respond to damage in their DNA and providing insights into the development and treatment of cancer.

  • Yoshinori Ohsumi

    for elucidating autophagy, the recycling system that cells use to generate nutrients from their own inessential or damaged components.

• 2016

  • Edward S. Boyden

    for the development and implementation of optogenetics – the programming of neurons to express light-activated ion channels and pumps, so that their electrical activity can be controlled by light.

  • Helen Hobbs

    for the discovery of human genetic variants that alter the levels and distribution of cholesterol and other lipids, inspiring new approaches to the prevention of cardiovascular and liver disease.

  • John Hardy

    for discovering mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene that cause early onset Alzheimer's disease, linking accumulation of APP-derived beta-amyloid peptide to Alzheimer's pathogenesis and inspiring new strategies for disease prevention.

  • Svante Pääbo

    for pioneering the sequencing of ancient DNA and ancient genomes, thereby illuminating the origins of modern humans, our relationships to extinct relatives such as Neanderthals, and the evolution of human populations and traits.

• 2015

  • Alim-Louis Benabid

    for the discovery and pioneering work on the development of high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS), which has revolutionized the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

  • C. David Allis

    for the discovery of covalent modifications of histone proteins and their critical roles in the regulation of gene expression and chromatin organization, advancing the understanding of diseases ranging from birth defects to cancer.

  • Jennifer A. Doudna

    for harnessing an ancient mechanism of bacterial immunity into a powerful and general technology for editing genomes, with wide-ranging implications across biology and medicine.

  • Victor Ambros

    for the discovery of a new world of genetic regulation by microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that inhibit translation or destabilize complementary mRNA targets.

• 2014

  • Alexander Varshavsky

    for discovering critical molecular determinants and biological functions of intracellular protein degradation.

  • James P. Allison

    for the discovery of T cell checkpoint blockade as effective cancer therapy.

  • Mahlon DeLong

    for defining the interlocking circuits in the brain that malfunction in Parkinson's disease – this scientific foundation underlies the circuit-based treatment of Parkinson's disease by deep brain stimulation.

  • Michael N. Hall

    for the discovery of Target of Rapamycin (TOR) and its role in cell growth control.

  • Richard P. Lifton

    for the discovery of genes and biochemical mechanisms that cause hypertension.

  • Robert S. Langer

    for discoveries leading to the development of controlled drug-release systems and new biomaterials.

• 2013

  • Bert Vogelstein

    for cancer genomics and tumor suppressor genes.

  • Charles Sawyers

    for cancer genes and targeted therapy.

  • Cornelia Bargmann

    for the genetics of neural circuits and behavior, and synaptic guidepost molecules.

  • David Botstein

    for linkage mapping of Mendelian disease in humans using DNA polymorphisms.

  • Eric S. Lander

    for the discovery of general principles for identifying human disease genes, and enabling their application to medicine through the creation and analysis of genetic, physical and sequence maps of the human genome.

  • Hans Clevers

    for describing the role of Wnt signaling in tissue stem cells and cancer.

  • Lewis C. Cantley

    for the discovery of PI 3-Kinase and its role in cancer metabolism.

  • Napoleone Ferrara

    for discoveries in the mechanisms of angiogenesis that led to therapies for cancer and eye diseases.

  • Robert A. Weinberg

    for characterization of human cancer genes.

  • Shinya Yamanaka

    for induced pluripotent stem cells.

  • Titia de Lange

    for research on telomeres, illuminating how they protect chromosome ends and their role in genome instability in cancer.