On Sept. 5, 2019, Penn Professor Virginia M.Y. Lee, PhD received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, in recognition of her work researching how different forms of misfolded proteins can move from cell to cell and lead to disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other dementias and movement disorders.

The award recognizes Lee’s pioneering work in understanding how different forms of misfolded proteins can move from cell to cell and lead to disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other dementias and movement disorders. Lee’s research focuses on proteins that form pathological inclusions in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related neurodegenerative disorders. She discovered tau, alpha-synuclein, and TDP-43 as the critical proteins, and further clarified the role they play in each disease. She demonstrated that cell-to-cell transmission of these pathological proteins explains how each disease progresses. This research has opened up new avenues of research to identify targets for drug discovery to develop better treatments for patients with these disorders.

Now in its eighth year, the Breakthrough Prize, sometimes referred to as the “Oscars of Science,” recognizes the world’s top scientists. Each prize is $3 million and presented in the fields of Life Sciences (up to four per year), Fundamental Physics (one per year) and Mathematics (one per year). In addition, up to three New Horizons in Physics and up to three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes are given out to early career researchers each year.