Six individuals have received this year's Lasker Awards in the areas of basic research, clinical research, and public service. Each award carries a stipend of $250,000.

Harvard Medical School professor Joel F. Habener won the 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his work on the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), the Lasker Foundation announced last Thursday.

Zhijian “James” Chen received this year’s Albert Lasker Award for discovering cGAS, an enzyme which scopes out DNA-based threats and alerts the immune system.

Three scientists are honored for developing a class of blockbuster weight-loss drugs. Is a Nobel prize on the way?

James Chen, a professor of microbiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has won a Lasker Award for his discovery of an enzyme involved in immune response.

One of the researchers described the circumstances that led to the discovery as “serendipity.” This year’s prestigious Lasker medical awards recognize a trio of scientists without whom Ozempic and other blockbuster weight-loss drugs might not exist.

Each year, the Lasker Awards honor a number of medical professionals doing standout work in research and public service. The New York Times has called the awards “the nation’s most prestigious medical prizes.