Three researchers from the Boston area have won prestigious Breakthrough Prizes for their significant contributions to science. David Liu, from the Broad Institute, was recognized for his lab's development of base and prime gene editing technologies, which offer novel approaches to treating genetic diseases. These technologies have been disseminated to thousands of non-profit labs globally and are currently involved in numerous clinical trials showing promising results for conditions like T-cell leukemia, sickle-cell disease, and more.
A second prize was awarded to a team including Jeffrey Habener from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, along with Daniel J. Drucker, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Svetlana Mojsov, for their discovery of GLP-1 medications. These medications effectively manage diabetes and obesity by mimicking the body's natural GLP-1 hormone.
The third prize went to Harvard's Alberto Ascherio and Stephen L. Hauser from the University of California for their research linking the Epstein-Barr virus to multiple sclerosis (MS). This discovery holds significant implications for earlier disease intervention through antiviral therapies or a potential vaccine.