Wolf Prize in Medicine


The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Arts. The Prize has been stated to be the second most prestigious award in science, and a significant predictor of the Nobel Prize.

Laureateshttp://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&name=&prize=3016&year=&field=3006 Wolf Prize Recipients in Medicine

YearNameNationalityCitation
1978George D. Snellfor discovery of H-2 antigens, which codes for major transplantation antigens and the onset of the immune response.
1978Jean Daussetfor discovering the HL-A system, the major histocompatibility complex in man and its primordial role in organ transplantation.
1978Jon J. van Roodfor his contribution to the understanding of the complexity of the HL-A system in man and its implications in transplantation and in disease.
1979Roger Wolcott Sperryfor his studies on the functional differentiation of the right and left hemispheres of the brain.
1979Arvid Carlssonfor his work which established the role of dopamine as a neurotransmitter.
1979Oleh Hornykiewiczfor opening a new approach in the control of Parkinson's disease by L-Dopa.
1980César Milstein
Leo Sachs
James L. Gowans		 / ;
;
for their contributions to knowledge of the function and dysfunction of the body cells through their studies on the immunological role of the lymphocytes, the development of specific antibodies and the elucidation of mechanisms governing the control and differentiation of normal and cancer cells.
1981Barbara McClintockfor her imaginative and important contributions to our understanding of chromosome structure behaviour and function, and for her identification and description of transposable genetic elements.
1981Stanley N. Cohenfor his concepts underlying genetic engineering; for constructing a biologically functional hybrid plasmid, and for achieving actual expression of a foreign gene implanted in E. coli by the recombinant DNA method.
1982Jean-Pierre Changeuxfor the isolation, purification and characterization of the acetylcholine receptor.
1982Solomon H. Snyderfor the development of the ways to label neurotransmitter receptors which provide tools to describe their properties.
1982James W. Blackfor developing agents which block beta adrenergic and histamine receptors.
1983/4No award
1984/5Donald F. Steinerfor his discoveries concerning the bio-synthesis and processing of insulin which have had profound implications for basic biology and clinical medicine.
1986Osamu Hayaishifor his discovery of the oxygenase enzymes and elucidation of their structure and biological importance.
1987Pedro Cuatrecasas
Meir Wilchek
for the invention and development of affinity chromatography and its applications to biomedical sciences.
1988Henri G. Hers
Elizabeth F. Neufeld
for the biochemical elucidation of lysosomal storage diseases and the resulting contributions to biology, pathology, prenatal diagnosis and therapeutics.
1989John Gurdonfor his introduction of the xenopus oocyte into molecular biology and his demonstration that the nucleus of a differentiated cell and of the egg differ in expression but not in the content of genetic material.
1989Edward B. Lewisfor his demonstration and exploration of the genetic control of the development of body segments by homeotic genes.
1990Maclyn McCartyfor his part in the demonstration that the transforming factor in bacteria is due to deoxyribonucleic acid and the concomitant discovery that the genetic material is composed of DNA.
1991Seymour Benzerfor having generated a new field of molecular neurogenetics by his pioneering research on the dissection of the nervous system and behavior by gene mutations.
1992M. Judah Folkmanfor his discoveries which originated the concept and developed the field of angiogenesis research.
1993No award
1994/5Michael J. Berridge
Yasutomi Nishizuka
for their discoveries concerning cellular transmembrane signalling involving phospholipids and calcium.
1995/6Stanley B. Prusinerfor discovering prions, a new class of pathogens that cause important neurodegenerative disease by inducing changes in protein structure.
1997Mary Frances Lyonfor her hypothesis concerning the random inactivation of X-chromosomes in mammals.
1998Michael Sela
Ruth Arnon
for their major discoveries in the field of immunology.
1999Eric R. Kandelfor the elucidation of the organismic, cellular and molecular mechanisms whereby short-term memory is converted to a long-term form.
2000No award
2001Avram Hershko
Alexander Varshavsky		;
/ 		for the discovery of the ubiquitin system of intracellular protein degradation and the crucial functions of this system in cellular regulation.
2002/3Ralph L. Brinsterfor the development of procedures to manipulate mouse ova and embryos, which has enabled transgenesis and its applications in mice.
2002/3Mario Capecchi
Oliver Smithies		 / ;
/ 		for their contribution to the development of gene-targeting, enabling elucidation of gene function in mice.
2004Robert A. Weinbergfor his discovery that cancer cells including human tumor cells, carry somatically mutated genes-oncogenes that operate to drive their malignant proliferation.
2004Roger Y. Tsienfor his seminal contribution to the design and biological application of novel fluorescent and photolabile molecules to analyze and perturb cell signal transduction.
2005Alexander Levitzkifor pioneering signal transduction therapy and for developing tyrosine kinase inhibitors as effective agents against cancer and a range of other diseases.
2005Anthony R. Hunter / for the discovery of protein kinases that phosphorylate tyrosine residues in proteins, critical for the regulation of a wide variety of cellular events, including malignant transformation.
2005Anthony J. Pawson / for his discovery of protein domains essential for mediating protein-protein interactions in cellular signaling pathways, and the insights this research has provided into cancer.
2006/7No award
2008Howard Cedar
Aharon Razin
for their fundamental contributions to our understanding of the role of DNA methylation in the control of gene expression.
2009No award
2010Axel Ullrichfor groundbreaking cancer research that has led to development of new drugs.
2011Shinya Yamanaka
Rudolf Jaenisch		;
/ 		for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells from skin cells and demonstration that iPS cells can be used to cure genetic disease in a mammal, thus establishing their therapeutic potential.
2012Ronald M. Evansfor his discovery of the gene super-family encoding nuclear receptors and elucidating the mechanism of action of this class of receptors.
2013No award
2014Nahum Sonenberg / for his discovery of the proteins that control the protein expression mechanism and their operation.
2014Gary Ruvkun
Victor Ambros		;
for the discovery of the micro-RNA molecules that play a key role in controlling gene expression in natural processes and disease development.
2015John Kappler
Philippa Marrack		;
for major contributions to the understanding of the key antigen-specific molecules, the T cell receptor for antigen and antibodies and how these molecules participate in immune recognition and effector function.
2015Jeffrey Ravetchfor major contributions to the understanding of the key antigen-specific molecules, the T cell receptor for antigen and antibodies and how these molecules participate in immune recognition and effector function.
2016C. Ronald Kahnfor pioneering studies defining insulin signaling and its alterations in disease.
2016Lewis C. Cantleyfor discovery of phosphoinositide- 3 kinases and their roles in physiology and disease.
2017James P. Allisonfor a revolution in cancer treatment due to the discovery of the immune control barrier.
2018No award
2019Jeffrey M. Friedmanfor the discovery of Leptin and the entirely new endocrine system controlling body weight.
2020Emmanuelle Charpentierfor deciphering and repurposing the bacterial CRISPR/Cas9 immune system for genome editing.
2020Jennifer Doudnafor revealing the medicine-revolutionizing mechanism of bacterial immunity via RNA-guided genome editing.