Harvard Medical School Researcher Wins 2025 Breakthrough Prize for Work on GLP-1

Joel Habener is one of five scientists recognized for research that transformed diabetes and obesity treatment

Research Awards and Recognitions

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The 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has been awarded to five scientists for the discovery and characterization of the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1 — findings that subsequently led to the development of treatments based on GLP-1.

Their research, and the therapies enabled by it, have profoundly reshaped the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity and have shown promise for other cardiometabolic conditions, such as heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and fatty liver disease.

The Breakthrough Prizes, sometimes called the “Oscars of Science,” recognize the world’s top researchers pursuing fundamental questions in science. The 2025 Life Sciences recipients are:

  • Daniel Drucker, senior scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and professor of medicine at the University of Toronto
  • Joel Habener, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Jens Juul Holst, professor of medical physiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, chief scientific advisor at Novo Nordisk
  • Svetlana Mojsov, research associate professor at The Rockefeller University

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GLP-1 is a hormone produced by the small intestine that plays a key role in regulating blood sugar, controlling appetite, and modulating digestion. To coordinate these complicated tasks, the hormone must simultaneously communicate with other hormones and with multiple organs and systems, including the stomach, pancreas, liver, brain, heart, blood vessels, and immune system.

The body of research conducted by the five scientists, supported in part by federal funding, has dramatically advanced understanding of how GLP-1 functions in the body. Notably, their work contributed to the development of GLP-1 drugs, which have revolutionized treatment for type 2 diabetes and obesity.

“The work of these five scientists is a beautiful illustration of how insights made in the lab can profoundly alter our understanding of human physiology and lead to the development of disease-modifying treatments that improve millions of lives,” said George Q. Daley, dean of HMS. “The story of GLP-1 treatments demonstrates the power of collaboration among academia, government, and industry for the benefit of humanity.”

In 2020, Habener shared the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize with Drucker and Holst for their work on GLP-1 and related hormone GLP-2. In 2024, Habener won the Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, along with Mojsov and Knudsen, for their collective contributions to the GLP-1 field.

A new field is born

Glucagon and insulin, both hormones released by the pancreas, work together to help the body maintain healthy sugar levels. When sugar levels drop, glucagon levels increase, prompting the liver to release glucose into the bloodstream to fuel the brain and other organs. When sugar levels rise, insulin is released and reduces sugar levels in the blood by distributing this sugar into tissues in the body.

Research on GLP-1 started in the 1970s, when Holst first realized that molecules besides glucagon and insulin were involved in regulating blood sugar. He eventually identified a glucagon-like molecule entering the blood from the gut that he called enteroglucagon.

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Simultaneously, Habener was studying the interaction between glucagon and somatostatin, another hormone made by the pancreas that inhibits the release of insulin and glucagon. Working in anglerfish, he cloned the gene that codes for glucagon and somatostatin and pinpointed amino acid sequences for two similar, but previously unknown, hormones. Through further experiments in mammals, he identified the hormones as GLP-1 and GLP-2.

Holst, Habener, and Drucker — who joined Habener’s lab in the mid-1980s — went on to characterize the biology and mechanism of GLP-1. They showed that food intake prompts the gut to release the hormone into the blood, where it enhances insulin release, suppresses glucagon, and slows stomach emptying. Drucker also established the effect of GLP-1 on organs and systems beyond the pancreas, including the brain, gut, heart, blood vessels, and immune system.

At Mass General, Mojsov worked with Habener and Drucker on identifying GLP-1 and demonstrating its ability to trigger the release of insulin.

Independently, Mojsov developed new research methods and reagents that propelled research on the basic biology of GLP-1. Later, she identified and purified the physiologically active form of the hormone and synthesized a version in the lab.

In the 1990s, Knudsen and her team at Novo Nordisk used these insights about the biology of GLP-1 to develop GLP-1 therapies for type 2 diabetes and obesity — namely liraglutide, and later, semaglutide, which is more stable and longer acting. Both drugs mimic GLP-1’s function in the body — increasing the release of insulin and decreasing the release of glucagon, enabling better control of blood sugar as well as weight loss.

Together, the work of these five scientists has launched a new class of medications and, with them, a new field of research to understand their therapeutic effects beyond obesity and diabetes.

In recent years, GLP-1 therapies have become a highly effective treatment for type 2 diabetes, which affects around 35 million people in the United States and more than 460 million worldwide. The drugs have also emerged as a powerful treatment for obesity, which can take a devastating long-term toll on multiple organs and organ systems. As of 2024, around 12 percent of U.S. adults reported having used a GLP-1 medication at some point. The therapies are now being studied for other cardiometabolic conditions, including heart failure, chronic kidney disorders, and fatty liver disease.

The winners, who will share a $3 million prize, were honored along with other Life Sciences laureates, as well as laureates in Fundamental Physics and in Mathematics, at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 5.