Nominations for the 2026 #LaskerAwards are open! Anyone can nominate. You will be able to work on, save, and return to your nomination before making a final submission on our online portal:
www.laskerawardnomination.org
To Help Humanity Survive—“Our world is an interconnected system, like a living cell,” says 2025 Special Achievement Award winner Lucy Shapiro (Stanford University School of Medicine). She warns, “Life on Earth is fragile. Global health is at a tipping point.” #LaskerAwards
A Force of Nature—Presenting the 2025 Special Achievement Award, Lasker Jury member Craig Thompson notes that Lucy Shapiro's accomplishments 'set a new bar.' 'She is a force of nature,' he adds. #LaskerAwards
Guide Where the River Goes—2025 Clinical Award winner Paul Negulescu (Vertex Pharmaceuticals) describes his passion for science as a flowing river. He explains, 'If we’re lucky and persistent, we have a chance to guide where the river goes.' #LaskerAwards #Science
Impossible vs. Unpreprecedented—2025 Clinical Award winner Paul Negulescu on fixing the CFTR protein, not the gene: "It was regarded as impossible because it had never been done before, but actually, it was just unprecedented—and we often confuse the two." #LaskerAwards
Make the Needle Jump—2025 Clinical Award winner Jesús (Tito) González advises young scientists to follow their instincts, seek new approaches to "make the needle jump," and embrace failure as a normal part of the process. #LaskerAwards #Advice
The Intermediate Step—2025 Clinical Award winner Jesús (Tito) González calls the path from basic research to new drugs "challenging, risky, & not well-defined," stressing the need to support the "intermediate step" of generating pharmacological proof-of-concept. #LaskerAwards
Completely Obsessed—Lasker Award winner Michael Welsh (University of Iowa) recalls nearly quitting the lab until a surprising late-night result sparked an obsession. The answer brought an "incredible sense of peace" & confirmed his calling as a physician-scientist. #LaskerAwards
A Job Worth Doing—2025 Clinical Award winner Michael Welsh (University of Iowa) shares his journey from a two-room schoolhouse to the pinnacle of medical science. Why did he choose the physician pathway? The reason was simple: "I thought it must be a job worth doing." #LaskerAwards #Motivation
Medicine's Great Triumphs—Richard Lifton calls the cystic fibrosis drug treatment a "great triumph," showcasing the power of collaboration between clinicians, academic scientists, NIH, philanthropy, patient advocacy groups, & the biotech industry. #LaskerAwards
The Power of Biomedical Science—Lasker Juror Richard Lifton presents the 2025 Clinical Award to Michael Welsh, Jesús Tito-González, & Paul Negulescu for oral drugs that reconstruct the defective protein in cystic fibrosis (CF), transforming thousands of lives. #LaskerAwards
The Magic of Serendipity—2025 Basic Award winner Steven McKnight (UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas) on his discovery: it came from chasing down an "outrageously irrelevant observation," which allowed him to "stumble over the magic of serendipity." #LaskerAwards
2025 Basic Award winner Dirk Görlich @mpsgoettingen.bsky.social advises scientists to overcome "headwinds against new ways of thinking" by putting ideas to the "strictest possible test" and finding satisfaction in the journey, not just the destination. #LaskerAwards
A Dream of Dancing Atoms—“We had our Kekulé moment as well,” says 2025 Basic Award winner Dirk Görlich (Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen), explaining how nuclear pores form a permeability barrier from disordered low-complexity domains. #LaskerAwards
Jury member & Lasker Laureate James Rothman presents the 2025 Basic Medical Research Award to Steven McKnight & Dirk Görlich. He celebrates their work & concludes that with stable, long-term funding, the success of curiosity-driven research is "no curiosity at all." #LaskerAwards
Congrats to Gairdner Canada International Award Laureates: Lucy Shapiro (2009), Paul Negulescu (2025) & Michael Welsh (2025) on their 2025 #LaskerAwards!
Paul & Michael will also speak at #GairdnerScienceWeek on Oct 22 & Oct 23.
🔗Free registration: bit.ly/GairdnerScie...
Today is #WorldBloodDonorDay. 🧪 🩸 Discoveries recognized by #LaskerAwards helped to make blood transfusions safer:
-Rh factor as a cause of hemolysis: laskerfoundation.org/winners/rh-f...
-The viral cause of #HepC and methods to prevent its spread:
laskerfoundation.org/winners/hepa...
Happy birthday to #LaskerLaureate and #LaskerAwards Jury Chair Joseph Goldstein! He was recognized for the discovery of the basic mechanisms controlling #cholesterol metabolism. buff.ly/415PPQn
Read about his decades-long collaboration with Michael Brown: buff.ly/4gus3Sv
The #LaskerAwards celebrate the discoveries of scientists who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of human disease.
Our programs educate the public & promote scientific collaboration, & we advocate for a healthier world through medical research.
