Work into neurodegenerative disorders and protein folding has led researchers to win this year's Breakthrough Prize in the life sciences, which comes with $3 million in prize money.
In its eighth year, the Breakthrough Prize aims to fête researchers with a large prize and a star-studded gala, which this year is to take place in early November. In 2014, billionaire Yuri Milner, who established the awards, argued in the New York Times that science should be "as glitzy as rock 'n' roll."
This year's life science winners include Franz-Ulrich Hartl from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Arthur Horwich at Yale University for their work on protein folding and aggregation, which could have implications for neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease. Similarly, the University of Pennsylvania's Virginia Man-Yee Lee is among the winners for her research finding TDP43 protein aggregates in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The other winners in the life sciences are Rockefeller University's Jeffrey Friedman and the University of California, San Francisco's David Julius for their work on the regulation of body fat and pain sensation, respectively.
The group is also giving out awards in physics and mathematics.