
At a glance:
First-in-class medication halts HIV replication by disrupting a critical piece of the viral machinery — the capsid protein shell that protects the vial genome.
Twice-a-year injection removes significant barriers common with other HIV treatments.
Because the drug is used for HIV resistant to other drugs but can also prevent HIV infection in the first place, it could accelerate the end of the global HIV epidemic.
The 2025 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to three scientists whose discoveries culminated in the development of lenacapavir, a medication used to treat and prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the first approved drug to disrupt a viral capsid, a critical piece of the viral machinery that allows it to replicate.
Because this therapy — more potent than any other HIV drug — is given only twice a year and can prevent HIV infection, it carries the promise to accelerate the end of the HIV epidemic.
The three recipients are:
- Tomas Cihlar, Senior Vice President of Virology at Gilead Sciences
- John O. Link, former Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Gilead Sciences, current Scientific Advisor at Actio Biosciences and Scientific Advisory Board member for Terremoto Biosciences
- Wesley Sundquist, Samuels Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Utah
The $500,000 award, to be shared among the three winners, is given by the Warren Alpert Foundation in recognition of work that has improved the understanding, prevention, treatment, or curing of human disease. The prize is administered by Harvard Medical School. The award winners will be recognized at a scientific symposium on Oct. 30 hosted by Harvard Medical School. For details, visit the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize symposium website.
“Lenacapavir is a powerful example of how basic research that elucidates the structure and behavior of a virus can lead to life-changing treatments,” said George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School and chair of the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize advisory board. “It reflects the best of academic-industry collaboration and marks a major step toward ending a decades-long epidemic.”
Other past recipients include:
- Drew Weissman, Katalin Karikó, Uğur Şahin, Özlem Türeci, and Eric Huang for pioneering discoveries into the biology of mRNA, for its modification for medicinal use, and for the design of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines that set the stage for other mRNA vaccines and a variety of mRNA-based therapies. Karikó and Weissman shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- Lynne Maquat and Joan Steitz for discoveries in the biology and function of RNA that reshaped the understanding of RNA’s various roles in healthy cell function and disease-causing dysfunction.
- Daniel Drucker, Joel Habener, and Jens Juul Holst for elucidating the function of key intestinal hormones, their effects on metabolism, and the subsequent design of treatments for type 2 diabetes, obesity, and short bowel syndrome.
- Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Gero Miesenböck for pioneering work in the field of optogenetics.
- Francis Collins, Paul Negulescu, Bonnie Ramsey, Lap-Chee Tsui, and Michael Welsh for discoveries in cystic fibrosis.
- James Allison, Lieping Chen, Gordon Freeman, Tasuku Honjo, and Arlene Sharpe for discoveries into cancer’s ability to evade immune surveillance, which led to the development of a class of cancer immunotherapies. Allison and Honjo shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- Rodolphe Barrangou, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna, Philippe Horvath, and Virginijus Siksnys for CRISPR-related discoveries. Doudna and Charpentier shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- Tu Youyou, who went on to receive the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two others, and Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig for their pioneering discoveries in the chemistry and parasitology of malaria and the translation of that work into the development of drug therapies and an antimalarial vaccine.
- Oleh Hornykiewicz, Roger Nicoll, and Solomon Snyder for research into neurotransmission and neurodegeneration.
- Alain Charpentier and Robert Langer for innovations in bioengineering.
- Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann for work on the human papillomavirus (HPV) and its role in cervical cancer. Zur Hausen and others were honored with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008.
The Warren Alpert Foundation
Each year, the Warren Alpert Foundation receives between 30 and 50 nominations from scientific leaders worldwide. Prize recipients are selected by the foundation’s scientific advisory board, which is composed of distinguished biomedical scientists and chaired by the dean of Harvard Medical School. Warren Alpert (1920-2007), a native of Chelsea, Mass., established the prize in 1987 after reading about the development of a vaccine for hepatitis B. The inaugural recipient of the award was Kenneth Murray of the University of Edinburgh, who designed the hepatitis B vaccine. To award subsequent prizes, Alpert asked Daniel Tosteson (1925-2009), then dean of Harvard Medical School, to convene a panel of experts to identify scientists from around the world whose research had a direct impact on the treatment of disease.