The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences is intended to recognize breakthrough research in pure or applied life science research that is distinguished by its excellence, originality and impact on our understanding of biological systems and processes. The award may recognize a specific contribution or series of contributions that demonstrate the nominee’s significant leadership in the development of research concepts or their clinical application. Particular emphasis will be placed on research that champions novel approaches and challenges accepted thinking in the

biomedical sciences Biomedical sciences are a set of sciences applying portions of natural science or formal science, or both, to develop knowledge, interventions, or technology that are of use in healthcare or public health. Such disciplines as medical micro ...

. The Wiley Foundation, established in 2001, is the endowing body that supports the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. This international award is presented annually and consists of a $35,000 prize and a luncheon in honor of the recipient. The award is presented at a ceremony at The

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York (state), New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medica ...

, where the recipient delivers an honorary lecture as part of the Rockefeller University Lecture Series. As of 2016, six recipients have gone on to be awarded the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ( sv, Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin) is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or ...

Award recipients

Source
Wiley Foundation
;2002 Dr. H. Robert Horvitz of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

and Dr.

Stanley J. Korsmeyer Stanley Joel Korsmeyer (June 8, 1950 – March 31, 2005) was an American research scientist known for his work on B cell lymphomas and apoptosis. Born and educated in the US state of Illinois, Korsmeyer spent most of his career as a profe ...

of the

Dana Farber Cancer Institute Dana may refer to: People Given name * Dana (given name) Surname * Dana (surname) * Dana family of Cambridge, Massachusetts ** James Dwight Dana (1813–1895), scientist, zoological author abbreviation Dana Nickname or stage name * Dana ...

- For his seminal research on

programmed cell death Programmed cell death (PCD; sometimes referred to as cellular suicide) is the death of a cell (biology), cell as a result of events inside of a cell, such as apoptosis or autophagy. PCD is carried out in a biological process, which usually confers ...

and the discovery that a genetic pathway accounts for the programmed cell death within an organism, and Dr. Korsmeyer was chosen for his discovery of the relationship between human lymphomas and the fundamental biological process of apoptosis. Notably, Dr. Korsmeyer's experiments established that blocking

cell death Cell death is the event of a biological cell ceasing to carry out its functions. This may be the result of the natural process of old cells dying and being replaced by new ones, as in programmed cell death, or may result from factors such as di ...

plays a primary role in

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...

. ;2003 Dr. Andrew Z. Fire, of both the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

; Dr. Craig C. Mello, of the

University of Massachusetts Medical School The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School is a public medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is part of the University of Massachusetts system. It is home to three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Grad ...

; Dr.

Thomas Tuschl Thomas Tuschl (born June 1, 1966) is a German biochemist and molecular biologist, known for his research on RNA. Biography Tuschl was born in Altdorf bei Nürnberg. After graduating in Chemistry from Regensburg University, Tuschl received his Ph ...

, formerly of the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, and most recently of The Rockefeller University; and Dr.

David Baulcombe Sir David Charles Baulcombe One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 1952) is a British plant scientist and geneticist. he is a Royal Society Research Professor and Regius Profe ...

, of the

Sainsbury Laboratory The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) is a research institute located at the Norwich Research Park (NRP) in Norwich, Norfolk, England, that carries out fundamental biological research and technology development on aspects of plant disease, plant dis ...

at the

John Innes Centre The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity (No 223852) grant-aided by the Biotechnology and B ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

, England - For contributions to discoveries of novel mechanisms for regulating gene expression by small interfering RNAs (siRNA). ;2004

C. David Allis Charles David Allis (March 22, 1951 – January 8, 2023) was an American molecular biologist, and the Joy and Jack Fishman Professor at the Rockefeller University. He was also the Head of the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics, an ...

, Ph.D., Joy and Jack Fishman, Professor, Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics at the

in New York - For the significant discovery that

transcription factors In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding to a specific DNA sequence. The f ...

can enzymatically modify

histones In biology, histones are highly basic proteins abundant in lysine and arginine residues that are found in eukaryotic cell nuclei. They act as spools around which DNA winds to create structural units called nucleosomes. Nucleosomes in turn are ...

to regulate gene activity. ;2005 Dr.

Peter Walter Peter Walter (born December 5, 1954) is a German-American molecular biologist and biochemist and is Director of the Bay Area Institute of Science at Altos Labs, Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was a Howard Hu ...

, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics at the

University of California San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

, and Dr.

Kazutoshi Mori is a Japanese molecular biologist known for research on unfolded protein response. He is a professor of Biophysics at the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, and shared the 2014 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Peter Wa ...

, a Professor of Biophysics, in the Graduate School of Science at

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = 22 ...

, in Japan - For the discovery of the novel pathway by which cells regulate the capacity of their intracellular compartments to produce

correctly folded proteins Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein chain is translated to its native three-dimensional structure, typically a "folded" conformation by which the protein becomes biologically functional. Via an expeditious and reproduci ...

for export. ;2006 Dr.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, ...

, Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It co ...

, and Dr.

Carol Greider Carolyn Widney Greider (born April 15, 1961) is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate. She joined the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Distinguished Professor in the department of molecular, cell, and developmental biology ...

, Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology & Genetics at

- For the discovery of

telomerase Telomerase, also called terminal transferase, is a ribonucleoprotein that adds a species-dependent telomere repeat sequence to the 3' end of telomeres. A telomere is a region of repetitive sequences at each end of the chromosomes of most e ...

, the enzyme that maintains chromosomal integrity and the recognition of its importance in aging, cancer and stem cell biology. ;2007 Dr. F. Ulrich Hartl, Director at the

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Martinsried, a suburb of Munich. The institute was founded in 1973 by the merger of three formerly independent institutes: the Max Planck ...

, in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany, and Dr.

Arthur L. Horwich Arthur L. Horwich (born 1951) is an American biologist and Sterling Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine. Horwich has also been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1990. His research into protein ...

, Eugene Higgins Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at the

Yale University School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary t ...

, and Investigator,

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, f ...

. - For elucidation of the molecular machinery that guides proteins into their proper functional shape, thereby preventing the accumulation of

protein aggregates In molecular biology, protein aggregation is a phenomenon in which intrinsically-disordered or mis-folded proteins aggregate (i.e., accumulate and clump together) either intra- or extracellularly. Protein aggregates have been implicated in a wi ...

that underlie many diseases, such as

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...

and

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms become ...

. ;2008 Dr. Richard P. Lifton of the

. - For the discovery of the genes that cause many forms of high and low blood pressure in humans. ;2009 Dr.

Bonnie Bassler Bonnie Lynn Bassler (born 1962) is an American molecular biologist; the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University; and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She has ...

of the Department of Molecular Biology at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

and the

. - For pioneering investigations of

quorum sensing In biology, quorum sensing or quorum signalling (QS) is the ability to detect and respond to cell population density by gene regulation. As one example, QS enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities a ...

, a mechanism that allows bacteria to “talk” to each other to coordinate their behavior, even between species. ;2010 Dr.

Peter Hegemann Peter Hegemann (born 11 December 1954) is a Hertie Senior Research Chair for Neurosciences and a Professor of Experimental Biophysics at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He is known ...

, Professor of Molecular Biophysics,

Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Willi ...

, Berlin; Dr. Georg Nagel, Professor of Molecular Plant Physiology, Department of Botany,

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one o ...

; and Dr. Ernst Bamberg, Professor and Director of the Dept of Biophysical Chemistry,

Max Planck Institute for Biophysics The Max Planck Institute of Biophysics (german: Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik) is located in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biophysics in 1937, and moved into a new building in 2003. It is an institute ...

, Frankfurt, Germany for their discovery of channelrhodopsins, a family of light-activated ion channels. The discovery has greatly enlarged and strengthened the new field of

optogenetics Optogenetics is a biological technique to control the activity of neurons or other cell types with light. This is achieved by expression of light-sensitive ion channels, pumps or enzymes specifically in the target cells. On the level of indiv ...

. Channelrhodopsins also provide a high potential for biomedical applications such as the recovery of vision and optical

deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure involving the placement of a medical device called a neurostimulator, which sends electrical impulses, through implanted electrodes, to specific targets in the brain (the brain nucle ...

for treatment of

and other diseases, instead of the more invasive electrode-based treatments. ;2011 Dr.

Lily Jan Lily Yeh Jan (; born January 20, 1947) is a Chinese-American neuroscientist. She is the Jack and DeLoris Lange Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, where she collaborates with her husband Yuh Nun ...

and Dr. Yuh Nung Jan of

at the

for their molecular identification of a founding member of a family of

potassium ion channels Potassium channels are the most widely distributed type of ion channel found in virtually all organisms. They form potassium-selective ion channel#Basic features, pores that span cell membranes. Potassium channels are found in most cell (biology), ...

that control nerve cell activity throughout the animal kingdom. ;2012 Dr.

Michael Sheetz Michael Patrick Sheetz is a cell biologist, a pioneer of mechanobiology and biomechanics, and a key contributor to the discovery of kinesin. He serves as the Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry at the University of Texas ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

; Dr. James Spudich, Stanford University, and Dr.

Ronald Vale Ronald David Vale (born 1959) is a biochemist and cell biologist. He is a professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco. His research is focused on motor proteins, particularly kinesi ...

for explaining how cargo is moved by

molecular motors Molecular motors are natural (biological) or artificial molecular machines that are the essential agents of movement in living organisms. In general terms, a motor is a device that consumes energy in one form and converts it into motion or mecha ...

along two different systems of tracks within cells. ;2013 Dr. Michael Young,

; Dr. Jeffrey Hall,

Brandeis University Brandeis University is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jews, Jewish community, Brandeis was established on t ...

(Emeritus), and Dr. Michael Rosbash,

for the discovery of the molecular mechanisms governing circadian rhythms. ;2014 Dr.

William Kaelin, Jr. William G. Kaelin Jr. (born November 23, 1957) is an American Nobel Laureate physician-scientist. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard University and the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. His laboratory studies tumor suppressor proteins. In 20 ...

; Dr.

Steven McKnight Steven Lanier McKnight is a professor and former chair of the department of biochemistry at UT Southwestern. His research is in the area of transcriptional regulation. McKnight received his bachelor's degree from University of Texas in 1974 and hi ...

; Dr.

Peter J. Ratcliffe Sir Peter John Ratcliffe, FRS, FMedSci (born 14 May 1954) is a British Nobel Laureate physician-scientist who is trained as a nephrologist. He was a practising clinician at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and Nuffield Professor of Clinical ...

; Dr.

Gregg L. Semenza Gregg Leonard Semenza (born July 12, 1956) is a Pediatrician and Professor of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He serves as the director of the vascular program at the Institute for Cell Engineering. He is a 2016 recipi ...

for their work in oxygen sensing systems. ;2015 Dr.

Evelyn M. Witkin Evelyn M. Witkin (born Evelyn Maisel; March 9, 1921) is an American geneticist who was awarded the National Medal of Science for her work on DNA mutagenesis and DNA repair. Research In 1944, Witkin spent the summer at Cold Spring Harbor Laborato ...

and Dr. Stephen Elledge for their studies of the DNA damage response. ;2016 Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi for the discovery of how cells recycle their components in an orderly manner. This process, autophagy (self-eating), is critical for the maintenance and repair of cells and tissues. ;2017 Joachim Frank, Richard Henderson, and Marin van Heel for pioneering developments in electron microscopy. ;2018

Lynne E. Maquat Lynne Elizabeth Maquat is an American biochemist and molecular biologist whose research focuses on the cellular mechanisms of human disease. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences a ...

for elucidating the mechanism of nonsense-mediated messenger RNA decay. ;2019

Svante Pääbo Svante Pääbo (; born 20 April 1955) is a Swedish geneticist who specialises in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. In 1997, he became founding dir ...

and David Reich for sequencing the genomes of ancient humans and extinct relatives. ;2020

Clifford Brangwynne Clifford P. Brangwynne is a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University and a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University. Awards *2023 ...

Anthony Hyman Anthony Hyman (17 April 1946 – 19 December 1999) was a British academic, writer, broadcaster, and Islamicist. Anthony Hyman was a son of the author, journalist, and film writer Alan Hyman (1910–1999). His siblings were the author Mira ...

, and

Michael Rosen Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is a British children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist who has written 140 books. He served as Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009. Early life Michael Wayne Ro ...

for a new principle of subcellular compartmentalization based on formation of phase-separated biomolecular condensates. ;2021 David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and

John Jumper John Jumper may refer to: * John Jumper (Seminole chief), principal chief of the Seminole Nation * John M. Jumper, AI researcher * John P. Jumper John Phillip Jumper (born February 4, 1945) is a retired United States Air Force general, who ser ...

for pioneering studies in protein structure predictions.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

The Wiley Foundation
Biology awards Medicine awards American awards Awards established in 2001

Award recipients

See also

References

External links