DZNE Researcher Honoured with the ”Oscar of Science”

Group picture of the awardees. — Thomas Gasser (4th from left) with Ellen Sidransky and Andrew Singleton, who were also honoured - as well as 2021 laureate Richard Youle. The “Breakthrough Prize in Life Science” was presented by actor Rob Lowe (2nd from left) and Google co-founder Sergey Brin (6th from left). Image courtesy of the Breakthrough Prize.

Breakthrough Prize: Gala in Los Angeles brings together stars from science and showbiz

Coverage of the award ceremony and visual insights into the laureates’ Parkinson’s research will be available on YouTube from April 21. Image courtesy of the Breakthrough Prize.

DZNE researcher Thomas Gasser from Tübingen has been awarded the “2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Science”, endowed with three million US dollars, last weekend. He shares the prize with two scientists based in the USA. The three experts were honoured for their discovery of genetic risk factors for Parkinson’s disease. Their research has been instrumental in the understanding of Parkinson’s and the identification of potential treatment approaches. Thomas Gasser is a senior researcher at DZNE’s Tübingen site and chairman of the board of directors at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen.

The award ceremony took place on April 13 during a gala in Los Angeles, California, which involved numerous celebrities from Hollywood, the music industry, top-level sport and tech industry. The laureates had already been announced a few months ago.

Coverage of the Breakthrough Prize Ceremony will premiere on YouTube on April 21.

The Breakthrough Prize was initiated in 2012 by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other entrepreneurs and philanthropists. The award is bestowed in various fields and considered the world’s largest prize for scientific research – it is also dubbed the “Oscar of Science”.

April 2024