The awards were presented at a Saturday ceremony in Los Angeles and are cofounded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, among others.
But unlike the Oscars, which recognizes only film achievements from the last calendar year, recipients of the Breakthrough Prizes can be honored for any major scientific leaps that sometimes took years or over a decade to complete.
Stuart Orkin Orkin, who runs a stem cell biology lab affiliated with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, was honored for his gene research which enabled development of the first FDA-approved gene-editing cure for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, two painful blood disorders impacting millions worldwide.
The treatment, Casgevy, developed by CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, has been “transformational,” in the lives of patients, Orkin said, though so far it has only been used to treat roughly 60 people in its two years on the market.
Orkin said he hopes the recognition from the award can benefit the next generation of work being undertaken by his lab to create a pill version of the treatment.
He shares his award with Swee Lay Thein of the National Institutes of Health.
“At a time when people are questioning the value of science, this is a good example … to counter whatever arguments are out there,” Orkin said.
Lee Roberts Roberts was recognized for his part in conducting groundbreaking particle physics experiments that increased research precision and understanding of the muon, a “heavy, unstable, cousin....
