The 2013 Life Sciences Prize

Some entrepreneurs, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sergey Brin launched a prize to encourage contributors who devote to the advancement of incentivizing others to pursue research, but not fund research.

In this Feb., 11 scientists have each won £2 million as part of a prize to recognize their achievement in biomedical research, including Nobel laureate Professor Shinya Yamanaka for his work on induced pluripotent stem cells and Professor Hans Clevers for his work on stem cells and cancer. Founding sponsors of the prize include Brin's wife and co-founder of biotechnology company 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, venture capitalist Yuri Milner and Zuckerberg's wife Priscilla Chan.

 

'I believe this new prize will shine a light on the extraordinary achievements of the outstanding minds in the field of life sciences, enhance medical innovation, and ultimately become a platform for recognizing future discoveries', says Art Levinson, Chairman of Apple, Genentech and the foundation responsible for the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Zuckerberg told CNN, 'This prize isn't really about the people who are winning it today. It's about younger kids trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up”.

 

Then for the next winner round, the last round will form a selection committee to pick from a nomination lists which is made online.

 

However the prize in some way criticized by some scientists, such as Guardian: 'I almost fell over. I didn't even know this prize existed', said prize winner Professor Lewis Cantley, Director of the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who won for his work on the metabolism of cancer cells.

 

Article Link: The 2013 Life Sciences Prize