The Lasker Awards, long regarded as among the most prestigious honors in biomedical science, recognized landmark discoveries in sleep biology and a transformative therapy for hemophilia this year. A public service award also went to actor Michael J. Fox for his Parkinson’s advocacy.
Each prize includes a $250,000 honorarium and will be presented Sept. 17 in New York City, according to the Lasker Foundation, established in 1942 by Albert and Mary Lasker. The recipients were announced Wednesday, Sept. 9.
A deeper understanding of sleep and the Lasker Awards
The Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award went to Dr. Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University School of Medicine and Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Tsukuba. Working independently, they identified a critical brain signaling system that governs the sleep-wake cycle and is absent in certain forms of narcolepsy, a disorder marked by excessive daytime sleepiness and, at times, cataplexy.
Yanagisawa’s group set out to decode “orphan” G protein-coupled receptors whose activating chemicals were unknown. Screening peptides from rat brain tissue, they identified two closely related molecules that activated the receptors. The team traced these peptides to the hypothalamus and named them orexins, reflecting earlier clues about appetite.
Subsequent work showed orexins principally sustain wakefulness. Mice lacking functional orexin genes abruptly collapsed and became immobile for brief periods, corresponding to rapid eye movement sleep intrusions similar to those seen in people with narcolepsy with cataplexy.
Concurrently, Mignot demonstrated that orexin deficiency underpins a form of narcolepsy in dogs, then connected the mechanism to human narcolepsy. Together, the converging findings introduced a molecular framework for sleep regulation that had been missing from the field.
The discoveries led to two new therapeutic directions. Orexin receptor antagonists promote sleep by dampening wakefulness pathways for insomnia, while orexin receptor agonists enhance wakefulness for narcolepsy. The first agonist was approved in August.
A life-changing hemophilia treatment
The Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award recognized Kunihiro Hattori, Takehisa Kitazawa and Tomoyuki Igawa, researchers associated with Chugai Pharmaceutical, for an engineered antibody that restores clotting function in hemophilia A.
Hemophilia A stems from deficient factor VIII, a protein that normally bridges factors IX and X to drive the coagulation cascade. The team’s antibody, emicizumab (marketed as Hemlibra), binds factors IX and X to perform the role of factor VIII, reducing bleeding episodes and complications.
Hattori launched the concept in 2000, proposing an antibody-based approach to assemble clotting components. Kitazawa and Igawa advanced the program using pharmacology and chemical engineering. Emicizumab received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 2017 and has since been cleared in more than 100 countries.
According to the award announcement, over 30,000 people have been treated to date. Related research on how nutrition and biology affect aging, such as a recent sea squirts aging study, continues to broaden the understanding of long-term health.
Parkinson’s disease advocacy
The Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award went to Michael J. Fox, founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Fox began experiencing symptoms of early-onset Parkinson’s in 1990 at age 29 and publicly disclosed his diagnosis in 1998, helping to elevate public understanding of the disease and its stigma.
Through collaboration with advocacy groups, Fox identified funding gaps that were hindering progress. Since its launch in 2000, his foundation has committed more than $3 billion to Parkinson’s research, according to the award announcement. In accepting the honor, Fox said the effort’s aim has always been to cure Parkinson’s and that he shares the recognition with the wider Parkinson’s community.
This report is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.