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The Novo Nordisk Prize is an annual award presented to acknowledge exceptional contributions within the fields of medical and health sciences. [1] [2] It is specifically aimed at individuals who have demonstrated outstanding research or innovation that has the potential to advance medical science, particularly in areas related to diabetes, endocrinology, and biopharmaceutical science. [3] The prize is administered by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, an independent Danish enterprise foundation. [4]
Established by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the prize reflects the Foundation's commitment to support health, scientific, and humanitarian efforts through research. The Foundation holds a controlling interest in the Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk. [4]
The prize, originally DKK 50,000 (approx $7,200), was first awarded on 16 February 1963. [5] [6] Since then, the amount awarded has gradually increased. The prize was called the Novo Prize from 1963 until 1989, when it was renamed the Novo Nordisk Prize. Until 2020 the Prize was given for a Danish contribution. In 2020, it has been decided to change the geographical scope of the prize and from 2021 the prize will be awarded for a European contribution. [7]
The Novo Nordisk Prize includes a monetary award, the amount of which can vary from year to year. Alongside the financial component, recipients are also awarded a medal and a diploma in recognition of their contributions. The prize is designed not only to honour exceptional scientific work but also to support the continued research efforts of the recipients. [8]
| Year | Recipient(s) |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Molly Stevens [10] [11] |
| 2022 | Uğur Şahin [12] |
| 2022 | Drew Weissman [3] |
| 2022 | Özlem Türeci [12] |
| 2022 | Katalin Karikó [13] |
| 2021 | Marco Prinz [14] [15] |
| 2020 | Merete Nordentoft, professor |
| 2020 | Preben Bo Mortensen |
| 2019 | Hans Bisgaard, professor |
| 2018 | Jørgen Kjems, professor |
| 2017 | Poul Nissen, professor |
| 2016 | Christian Torp-Pedersen, professor |
| 2015 | Jens Bukh, professor |
| 2014 | Søren Molin, professor |
| 2013 | Søren K. Moestrup |
| 2012 | Erik A. Richter |
| 2011 | Peter Lawætz Andersen |
| 2010 | Henrik Clausen |
| 2009 | Søren Nielsen |
| 2008 | Kristian Helin |
| 2007 | Marja Jäättelä |
| 2006 | Henning Beck-Nielsen |
| 2005 | Mads Melbye |
| 2004 | Peter Roepstorff og Matthias Mann |
| 2003 | Jiri Bartek og Jiri Lukas |
| 2002 | Jørgen Gliemann |
| 2001 | Thue W. Schwartz |
| 2000 | Peter Aaby |
| 1999 | Bengt Saltin |
| 1998 | Michael J. Mulvany og Christian Aalkjær |
| 1997 | Peter E. Nielsen |
| 1996 | Henrik Kehlet |
| 1995 | Niels Borregaard |
| 1994 | Hans Jørgen G. Gundersen |
| 1993 | Niels E. Skakkebæk |
| 1992 | Jan Fahrenkrug og Jens Juul Holst |
| 1991 | Peter Leth Jørgensen og Arvid Maunsbach |
| 1990 | Morten Simonsen |
| 1989 | Ove B. Norén og Hans G. Sjøstrøm |
| 1988 | Gunnar Bendixen |
| 1987 | Hans H. Ussing |
| 1986 | Hans Henrik Holm |
| 1985 | Hans Klenow |
| 1984 | Staffan Magnusson |
| 1983 | Christian Crone |
| 1982 | Jens F. Rehfeld |
| 1981 | Flemming Kissmeyer-Nielsen og Arne Svejgaard |
| 1980 | Bent Friis-Hansen |
| 1979 | Gerhard Salomon |
| 1978 | Margareta Mikkelsen og Villy Posborg Petersen |
| 1977 | Erik Amdrup |
| 1976 | Niels Tygstrup |
| 1975 | Georg Mandahl-Barth |
| 1974 | Michael Schwartz |
| 1973 | K.A. Marcker |
| 1972 | J.Chr. Siim |
| 1971 | Mogens Schou |
| 1970 | Poul Astrup |
| 1969 | Erik Zeuthen |
| 1968 | Niels A. Lassen |
| 1967 | Knud Lundbæk |
| 1966 | Jørn Hess Thaysen |
| 1965 | Jens Christian Skou |
| 1964 | Claus Brun |
| 1963 | Erik Warburg |
Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd with production facilities in nine countries and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder Novo Holdings A/S which holds approximately 28% of its shares and a majority (77%) of its voting shares.
Joan Elaine Argetsinger Steitz is Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is known for her discoveries involving RNA, including ground-breaking insights into how ribosomes interact with messenger RNA by complementary base pairing and that introns are spliced by small nuclear ribonucleic proteins (snRNPs), which occur in eukaryotes. In September 2018, Steitz won the Lasker-Koshland Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science. The Lasker award is often referred to as the 'American Nobel' because 87 of the former recipients have gone on to win Nobel prizes.
Søren Brunak is a Danish biological and physical scientist working in bioinformatics, systems biology, and medical informatics. He is a professor of Disease Systems Biology at the University of Copenhagen and professor of bioinformatics at the Technical University of Denmark. As Research Director at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen Medical School, he leads a research effort where molecular-level systems biology data are combined with phenotypic data from the healthcare sector, such as electronic patient records, registry information, and biobank questionnaires. A major aim is to understand the network biology basis for time-ordered comorbidities and discriminate between treatment-related disease correlations and other comorbidities in disease trajectories. Søren Brunak also holds a position as a Medical Informatics Officer at Rigshospitalet, the Capital Region of Denmark.
Cato T. Laurencin FREng SLMH is an American engineer, physician, scientist, innovator and a University Professor of the University of Connecticut.
The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences is intended to recognize breakthrough research in pure or applied life science research that is distinguished by its excellence, originality and impact on our understanding of biological systems and processes. The award may recognize a specific contribution or series of contributions that demonstrate the nominee's significant leadership in the development of research concepts or their clinical application. Particular emphasis will be placed on research that champions novel approaches and challenges accepted thinking in the biomedical sciences.
Lynne Elizabeth Maquat is an American biochemist and molecular biologist whose research focuses on the cellular mechanisms of human disease. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. She currently holds the J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics, pediatrics and of oncology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Professor Maquat is also Founding Director of the Center for RNA Biology and Founding Chair of Graduate Women in Science at the University of Rochester.
Dame Molly Morag Stevens, is Professor of Biomedical Materials and regenerative medicine and Research Director for Biomedical Materials Sciences in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London.
Novo Holdings A/S is the Novo Nordisk Foundation's wholly owned holding company for Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S. Novo Holdings A/S was established in 1999 and manages the Novo Nordisk Foundation's assets, which in 2023 was worth almost DKK 1,114 billion. Danish Kroner and is the largest charitable foundation in the world making Novo Holdings A/S a world-leading life sciences investor. Novo Holdings A/S is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with offices in San Francisco, Boston and Singapore.
Gagandeep Kang FRS is an Indian microbiologist and virologist who has been leading the work on enteric diseases, diarrheal infections and disease surveillance at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2023.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an international enterprise foundation focusing on medical treatment and research.
Gregory James Hannon is a professor of molecular cancer biology and director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge while also serving as a director of cancer genomics at the New York Genome Center and an adjunct professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Katalin "Kati" Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist who specializes in ribonucleic acid (RNA)-mediated mechanisms, particularly in vitro-transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein replacement therapy. Karikó laid the scientific groundwork for mRNA vaccines, overcoming major obstacles and skepticism in the scientific community. Karikó received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 for her work, along with American immunologist Drew Weissman.
Uğur Şahin is a German oncologist and immunologist. He is the founder and CEO of BioNTech, which developed one of the major vaccines against COVID-19. His main fields of research are cancer research and immunology.
Özlem Türeci is a German physician, scientist and entrepreneur. In 2008, she co-founded the biotechnology company BioNTech, which in 2020 developed the first messenger RNA-based vaccine approved for use against COVID-19. Türeci has served as BioNTech's chief medical officer since 2018. Since 2021, she has been Professor of Personalized Immunotherapy at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON) and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Türeci and her spouse, Uğur Şahin, have won a number of awards.
Drew Weissman is an American physician and immunologist known for his contributions to RNA biology. Weissman is the inaugural Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research, director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation, and professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn).
Pieter Rutter Cullis is a Canadian physicist and biochemist known for his contributions to the field of lipid nanoparticles (LNP). Lipid nanoparticles are essential to current mRNA vaccines as a delivery system. Prof. Cullis is best known for the development of ionizable cationic lipids. These lipids are able to complex with negatively charged nucleic acids at low pH (≈4.0) where they are positively charged because they have a pKa if approximately 6.4. They reduce or eliminate toxicity associated with cationic lipids at physiological pH of 7.4 because they adopt a net neutral charge. Finally, they enable endosomal escape because they again become positively charged in acidified endosomes and promote formation of non-bilayer structures by interaction with negatively charged lipids. These properties are critical to the function of the mRNA vaccines and are rapidly enabling gene therapy in clinical settings.
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The Hagedorn Prize is an annual award within the field of medical research, specifically recognizing outstanding contributions to diabetes research and endocrinology. Named after Hans Christian Hagedorn, a renowned Danish scientist and co-founder of Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium, the prize celebrates achievements in the understanding and treatment of diabetes.
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