Huda Yahya Zoghbi, M.D.

2020 The Brain Prize
2017 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
2017 Canada Gairdner International Award

Dr. Zoghbi is a professor of pediatrics, molecular and human genetics, neuroscience, and neurology at Baylor College of Medicine and is director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Zoghbi seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying brain development and degeneration.

Working primarily in mouse models and humans, Dr. Zoghbi and her team study the activities of proteins involved in neuropsychiatric disorders such as Rett syndrome, MECP2 duplication syndrome, and mania. They also collaborate with labs studying Drosophila to study the function of proteins that accumulate in late-onset degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and inherited movement disorders such as Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1).

The team’s goal is to find ways to reduce abnormal accumulation of proteins in degenerative conditions and normalize protein levels in developmental diseases.

Michael Rosbash, Ph.D.

2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The research of Michael Rosbash, Ph.D., focuses on the metabolism and processing of mRNA, the molecular link between DNA and protein, and ultimately led to his receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017. After arriving at Brandeis University in 1974, Dr. Rosbash began to investigate the genetic influences on circadian rhythms of the internal biological clock within species, particularly fruit flies, that helps them adapt their biological rhythm to the different phases of day and night. In 1984, he and his colleagues identified a gene that encodes a protein that accumulates during the night but is degraded during the day. They also identified additional proteins that form part of a self-regulating biological clockwork in the fruit fly’s cells. The same principles have been shown to apply to other animals and plants.

George M. Church, Ph.D.

Professor of Genetics, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School
Director, Harvard Medical School National Human Genome Research Institute’s Center of Excellence in Genomic Science
Director, Personal Genome Project, MIT’s Broad Institute and Harvard’s Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering

Harvard Professor Dr. Church, is a founding member of the Wyss Institute and director of PersonalGenomes.org, the world’s only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data.

A pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology, he developed the first methods for genome sequencing and dramatic cost reductions (from $3 billion to $600), contributing to nearly all “next-generation sequencing” methods and companies.

His team invented CRISPR for human stem cell genome editing and other synthetic biology technologies and applications, including new ways to create organs for transplantation, gene therapies for aging reversal, and gene drives to eliminate Lyme Disease and Malaria.

Dr. Church is the director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the National Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative, and the Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. He has co-authored more than 515 papers, 130 patent publications, and one book, Regenesis.