The annual Breakthrough Prize—a.k.a. the 'Oscars of Science'—announced this year's winners in the fields of life sciences, fundamental physics, and mathematics ahead of the November awards ceremony.
The winners of the eighth annual Breakthrough Prize were announced earlier today ahead of the November 3 awards ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain view, California. This year's winners—in the fields of life sciences, fundamental physics, and mathematics—will be awarded a sum total of $21.6 million.
For Life Sciences: Virginia Man-Yee Lee, University of Pennsylvania
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.
Description: Most patients with Alzheimer’s exhibit a web of tangles in their brain cells made up of tau proteins. In 1991, Lee evolved the “tau hypothesis” which posited that the tangles themselves inhibit the proper firing of neurons. She found similar entanglements associated with Parkinson’s and with ALS, and later uncovered how misfolded proteins could spread from cell-to-cell through the central nervous system. By working to replicate the pathological evolution of tau proteins, Lee invented a protein roadmap to neurodegenerative disorders and an elucidation of common mechanisms of degeneration. Her research has opened up new avenues for identifying targets for drug discovery.
For Life Sciences: David Julius, University of California, San Francisco
For discovering molecules, cells, and mechanisms underlying pain sensation.
Description: Julius discovered cellular signaling mechanisms that produce pain sensation. Among other curiosities, he found that chili peppers and menthol trigger the same sensory receptors in the nervous system that ordinarily respond to heat and cold. While most pain functions as an early warning system, chronic pain is debilitating. But by identifying specific cellular targets for the chronic pain of IBS, arthritis, cancer, etc., his team is laying the foundation for a next generation of non-opioid, precision analgesics.