VinFuture Prize Winner Honored at Breakthrough Prize 2025

The winners of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize received the “VinFuture Special Prize for Scientists researching new fields” at the 2023 VinFuture Prize Ceremony. (Photo: VinFuture Prize)

According to information from the Breakthrough Prize, five scientists, including Professor Daniel Joshua Drucker, Professor Joel Francis Habener, Professor Jens Juul Holst, Associate Professor Svetlana Mojsov - the winners of the VinFuture Special Prize for Scientists Researching Emerging Fields in 2023 - and Ms. Lotte Bjerre Knudsen were honored with the Breakthrough Prize in the field of Life Sciences.

The fundamental contributions of this discovery, from the discovery of basic hormones through physiological knowledge to pharmaceutical development, have led to the emergence of highly effective drugs for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, opening a new era in the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders with glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs.

According to Breakthrough, their breakthroughs include: identifying the gene that encodes the hormone GLP-1; synthesizing, isolating, and characterizing biologically active forms of the hormone; demonstrating the production of GLP-1 in the intestine and its ability to stimulate insulin production; explaining its diverse physiological roles, including appetite control and maintaining energy balance; developing a more stable version of the hormone that can work continuously in the body for days instead of hours; and, most importantly, translating these discoveries into a revolutionary class of drugs that are changing the lives of hundreds of millions of people with metabolic diseases worldwide.

Dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” the Breakthrough Awards were initiated by Silicon Valley business leaders to honor the groundbreaking scientific discoveries of our time.

The Breakthrough Prize 2025 honoring the breakthrough discovery of the GLP-1 research team follows the well-deserved recognition that this group of scientists received at the VinFuture Prize 2023.

Scientists Associate Professor Svetlana Mojsov, Professor Jens Juul Holst, and Professor Daniel J. Drucker (from right to left), winners of the VinFuture Special Prize for Scientists in Emerging Fields 2023 - continue to be honored with the Breakthrough Prize 2025. (Photo: photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize)

Previously, in December 2023, at the VinFuture Prize Ceremony Season 3, four scientists including Professor Drucker, Professor Habener, Associate Professor Mojsov and Professor Holst were awarded the VinFuture Special Prize for Scientists researching new fields worth 500,000 USD for their pioneering work exploring the role of GLP-1.

The work is the foundation for effective treatments for diabetes and obesity, promoting new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, and laying the foundation and opening up new hope for treating the more than 400 million people with type 2 diabetes, more than 1 billion people with obesity and more than 3 million people with short bowel syndrome. In 2023, there will be more than 20 million doses of GLP-1 drugs used worldwide, an impressive increase of 6.7%.

VinFuture is also the first major international science and technology award to honor Associate Professor Mojsov for her contributions to this work.

Since the VinFuture Prize, the group of GLP-1 project owners has been continuously honored in many prestigious awards and rankings around the world. Notably, Time Magazine (USA) voted Professor Drucker, Professor Habener and Associate Professor Mojsov into the list of Top 100 most influential people in the world in 2024 thanks to this project.

Although only entering its 5th year of operation, the VinFuture Prize has increasingly affirmed its stature and prestige as many awardees have been consecutively honored with prestigious international awards, especially the Nobel Prize. Typical examples include scientists Dr. Katalin Karikó, Professor Drew Weissman (VinFuture Main Prize 2021, Nobel Prize in Medicine 2023), Dr. Demis Hassabis, Dr. John Jumper (VinFuture Special Prize 2022, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024), and Professor Geoffrey Hinton (VinFuture Main Prize 2024, Nobel Prize in Physics 2024).

Source: https://nhandan.vn/vinfuture-award-recipient-duoc-vinh-danh-o-giai-thuong-breakthrough-2025-post870967.html