十一位科学家获生命科学巨奖 奖金达诺贝尔奖单项奖2.5倍

据《自然》网站消息，来自美国、荷兰和日本的11位科学家获得了首届生命科学大奖——“生命科学突破奖”（Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences）。他们分别获得该奖的五个奖项，每个得奖人将获奖金300万美元，该数目是诺贝尔奖单项奖金（2012年为120万美元）的2.5倍。

美国普林斯顿大学教授David Botstein和哈佛大学教授Eric S. Lander获得基因组学奖；美国康奈尔大学教授Lewis C. Cantley、荷兰皇家艺术与科学学院Hubrecht研究所教授Hans Clevers、美国加州大学圣地亚哥分校教授Napoleone Ferrara、美国纪念斯隆•凯特林癌症中心教授Charles L. Sawyers、美国约翰•霍普金斯大学教授Bert Vogelstein和美国麻省理工学院教授Robert A. Weinberg获得癌症奖；美国洛克菲勒大学教授Titia de Lange获得端粒奖；日本京都大学山中伸弥（Shinya Yamanaka）获得干细胞奖；神经生物学奖则授予美国洛克菲勒大学教授Cornelia I. Bargmann。

“生命科学突破奖”是由俄罗斯亿万富翁Yuri Milner等企业家共同设立。去年，Milner曾设立同样奖金的“基础物理学奖”，授予了霍金等九位理论物理学家。此次，他联合的企业家有美国遗传技术公司前CEO Art Levinson、谷歌创立者之一Sergey Brin、23andMe公司创立者Anne Wojcicki，以及Facebook创立者Mark Zuckerberg及其夫人Priscilla Chan。

据悉，该奖旨在奖励在生命科学领域取得重要成就的科学家，给他们提供更自由和更多的机会，帮助他们取得更大的成就。每年的获得者将加入评选委员会，参与下一届获奖者的评选。

任何人都可以通过网上提名获奖候选人。候选人没有年龄限制，而且每个奖项的获奖人数和个人获奖次数也没有限制。

原文报导：

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Award mints millionaire biologists

A team of entrepreneurs has awarded its first round of US$3-million ‘Breakthrough’ prizes in biology and medicine. The winners were already celebrities in scientific circles, but one goal of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is to make them household names.

Last summer, Russian social media magnate Yuri Milner awarded the first Fundamental Physics Prizes, a series of $3-million awards to theoretical physicists. Now he has decided to invite biologists to the party, uniting with former Genentech chief executive Art Levinson, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to sponsor five annual $3-million prizes.

The inaugural awards, however, went to a bumper crop: 11 pioneers who will help to select winners in subsequent years.  This year’s winners include those working in genomics (David Botstein and Eric Lander), cancer (Lew Cantley, Hans Clevers, Napoleone Ferrara, Charles Sawyers, Bert Vogelstein and Robert Weinberg), telomeres (Titia de Lange), stem cells (Shinya Yamanaka) and neurobiology (Cori Bargmann). Only one, to my knowledge, also has Gangnam Style. (Full MIT video here.)

The prize is worth more than two Nobels in cash, but will it be enough to raise the profile of biomedical researchers? The effort brings to mind the 2009 Rock Stars of Science ad campaign, which, it seems, is still going strong. Winners will give talks targeted to general audiences, and anyone can nominate scientists for the next round of five awards online.

来源：科学网