Discoveries in the biomedical sciences and innovations in clinical medicine have led to significant victories in our longstanding war against disease and suffering. With the mapping of the entire human genome, we are now closer to the understanding of the mechanisms of life, aging, illness and death, opening up exciting new opportunities for advances in therapeutics. Novel insights in the life science and technological advances in medicine will result in better health and an improved quality of life for the human race in the new century.
for their discovery of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch, making possible a revolutionary and highly effective genome-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and β thalassemia, devastating blood diseases that affect millions of people worldwide.
Prizes in Life Science and Medicine have been awarded to one laureate only
Prizes in Life Science and Medicine have been shared by two laureates
Prizes in Life Science and Medicine have been shared by three laureates
for pioneering structural biology that enabled visualisation, at the level of individual atoms, of the protein machines responsible for gene transcription, one of life’s fundamental processes. They revealed the mechanism underlying each step in gene transcription, how proper gene transcription promotes health, and how dysregulation causes disease.
for landmark discoveries of the molecular, biochemical, and functional defects underlying cystic fibrosis and the identification and development of medicines that reverse those defects and can treat most people affected by this disorder. Together, these discoveries and medicines are alleviating human suffering and saving lives.
for the landmark discovery of the ESCRT (Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport) pathway, which is essential in diverse processes involving membrane biology, including cell division, cell-surface receptor regulation, viral dissemination, and nerve axon pruning. These processes are central to life, health and disease.
for the development of optogenetics, a technology that has revolutionized neuroscience.
for her work showing that localized double strand breaks in DNA stimulate recombination in mammalian cells. This seminal work was essential for and led directly to the tools enabling editing at specific sites in mammalian genomes.
