Awards & Winners

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is a monetary award, funded by internet entrepreneurs: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; Sergey Brin of Google; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of the founders of the genetics company 23andMe. The Chairman of the Board is Arthur D. Levinson of Apple. The award of $3 million, the largest award in the sciences, is given to researchers who have made discoveries that extend human life. The Prize is awarded annually, beginning in 2013, with six awards given in each subsequent year. Winners are expected to give public lectures and form the committee to decide future winners.
Date Established : 2013

Check all the winners of Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences presented under Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences since 2013 .


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.)

Lewis C. Cantley

(For the discovery of PI 3-Kinase and its role in cancer metabolism.)

Hans Clevers

(For describing the role of Wnt signaling in tissue stem cells and cancer.)

Titia de Lange

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

Napoleone Ferrara

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

Eric 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.)

Charles Sawyers

(For cancer genes and targeted therapy.)

Robert Weinberg

(For characterization of human cancer genes.)

Shinya Yamanaka

(For induced pluripotent stem cells.)

Bert Vogelstein

(For cancer genomics and tumor suppressor genes.)