The Lasker Foundation has revealed the recipients of its 2026 awards, frequently referred to as “America’s Nobel Prizes.”. Among those recognized are investigators who exposed the brain chemistry underlying sleep, a group that produced a novel hemophilia A therapy, and actor Michael J. Fox, honored for his work on behalf of people with Parkinson’s disease.
The foundation has named its winners for the year, and each recipient receives an honorarium of $250,000. The awards will be given out in person Sept. 17 in New York City. The Lasker Foundation was founded in 1942 by Albert and Mary Lasker, and it made the announcement on Wednesday (Sept. 9).
Sleep Science’s Big Win
The 2025 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award was jointly given to Dr. Emmanuel Mignot of the Stanford University School of Medicine and Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Working separately, they found the same brain substance that governs the body’s sleep-wake rhythm. The absence of that substance explains why people with certain forms of narcolepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and sometimes cataplexy — sudden episodes of muscle weakness — experience those symptoms.
The pair of researchers reached their finding by separate routes. One was driven by a wish to know what lay behind narcolepsy. The other set out to study a kind of cell-surface receptor known as “orphans”, since the substances that set them off were still unknown.
“We never thought we would end up in sleep,” Yanagisawa told Live Science. “This was a kind of biochemical fishing expedition.”
Yanagisawa looked at a particular kind of protein known as G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs. These receptors sit on cell surfaces and act as gateways: when certain chemicals bind to them, they set off a series of reactions inside the cell. A great many substances that turn on GPCRs were already being used as medicines, yet there were still plenty of receptors whose natural triggers remained a mystery.
Those triggering chemicals were what his team was hunting inside the rat brain, and they found them by isolating peptides from the tissue and exposing GPCRs to them.
The fifth or sixth receptor they tested worked, according to “We got very lucky, initially,” Yanagisawa’s account. Subsequent experiments led them to two closely related peptides as the trigger, and they found a second related receptor to match.
Because the peptides originated in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that regulates eating behavior, the researchers decided to name them “orexins”, using the Greek term for appetite, “orexis.”.
Researchers found that orexins’ primary function is not regulating hunger. Instead, they drive alertness. When mice lack working orexin genes, they abruptly collapse and remain still for about a minute. During these episodes, their brains register sudden REM sleep onset, a condition that mirrors what happens in people with narcolepsy with cataplexy.
While Mignot was learning that orexin deficiency caused narcolepsy in dogs, he also turned his attention to how the condition worked in people with the sleep disorder.
“It became, suddenly, a very, very convincing story,” Yanagisawa said of the converging findings. Previously, sleep research involved damaging brain parts and watching how a lab animal’s sleep changed.
“There was no molecular level, genetic level, description of sleep regulation mechanisms at all,” he said. “So our papers really shed new light on sleep regulation.”
This research opened the door for new insomnia treatments known as orexin receptor antagonists, which dial back wakefulness to foster sleep. It also gave rise to new narcolepsy treatments called orexin receptor agonists, which strengthen wakefulness instead. The first drug in that category was just approved in August.
Chugai’s Clotting Breakthrough
Three researchers linked to the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Chugai Pharmaceutical received the Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award: Kunihiro Hattori, Takehisa Kitazawa and Tomoyuki Igawa.
A new antibody has been developed to target the body’s own blood-clotting proteins. It is aimed at hemophilia A, a serious bleeding condition that results from a genetic defect. That defect prevents the production of adequate amounts of factor VIII, which plays a central role in clot formation.
When there is not enough factor VIII present, a chain reaction needed for normal blood clotting cannot start. That missing substance usually binds to two other clotting factors, which then trigger the process that stops bleeding.
Chronic pain and reduced mobility are common among people with hemophilia A due to blood pooling in their joints. The condition can also lead to uncontrolled bleeding even when no injury has occurred.
The antibody binds two other clotting proteins — factors IX and X — to form a structure that takes over for the missing factor VIII. Hattori, who has since left Chugai Pharmaceutical, began the work in 2000, having come up with the idea to use an antibody to bring several clotting factors together. Kitazawa and Igawa then made it happen through pharmacology and chemical engineering.
Honoring Fox’s Parkinson’s Work
Michael J. Fox received the Lasker Award for public service. He has devoted many years to advocating for patients with Parkinson’s disease, and his efforts have helped push forward research into the neurodegenerative disorder.
The 2026 Winners List
The Lasker Awards went to:
- Dr. Emmanuel Mignot and Masashi Yanagisawa, for basic medical research into sleep and orexins
- Kunihiro Hattori, Takehisa Kitazawa and Tomoyuki Igawa, for clinical research into the hemophilia A antibody treatment
- Michael J. Fox, for public service in Parkinson’s disease advocacy
A gathering of winners is planned for Sept. 17, held in New York City, and it is there that the recipients will come together to mark their achievements. The prize money attached to each award stands at $250,000.
Yanagisawa did not expect to go from a fishing expedition to winning a major prize. Fox sees the award as recognition for years of advocacy.
Source: livescience.com
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