The Lasker Foundation announced its 2026 recipients of prestigious biomedical research awards on Wednesday, recognizing groundbreaking work in sleep science, hemophilia treatment, and disease advocacy. Each honoree receives a $250,000 prize, with an in-person ceremony scheduled for September 17 in New York City. The awards, often referred to as America’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize, were established in 1942 by philanthropists Albert and Mary Lasker.
Two researchers earned the Basic Medical Research Award for their independent discoveries of orexin, a brain substance crucial for regulating the sleep-wake cycle. Dr. Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University investigated narcolepsy’s underlying causes, while Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Tsukuba conducted what he described as a “biochemical fishing expedition” into orphan receptors. Their converging findings revealed that orexin deficiency causes narcolepsy in both animals and humans. This discovery has led to new medications: orexin receptor antagonists for insomnia treatment and orexin receptor agonists for narcolepsy, with the latter class receiving FDA approval just last month.
The Clinical Medical Research Award went to three scientists at Chugai Pharmaceutical—Kunihiro Hattori, Takehisa Kitazawa, and Tomoyuki Igawa—for developing emicizumab, an antibody treatment for hemophilia A. The drug works by binding clotting proteins to compensate for the missing factor VIII protein, preventing abnormal bleeding in patients. Approved by the FDA in 2017, emicizumab has since been adopted in over 100 countries and has helped more than 30,000 patients.
Actor Michael J. Fox received the Public Service Award for his advocacy work regarding Parkinson’s disease. After publicly revealing his early-onset diagnosis in 1998, Fox founded The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000. The organization has since funded over $3 billion in research efforts toward developing better treatments and a cure.
Originally reported by Livescience →
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