Breakthrough Prizes award $18.75 million to 2026 research leaders

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced its 2026 laureates on April 18, awarding six prizes of $3 million each across life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics. The size of the total purse this year is $18.75 million.

Stuart Orkin and Swee Lay Thein shared one of the three life sciences prizes for their contributions to development treatments for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, both deadly blood disorders. Orkin and Thein’s findings about how the body switches between foetal and adult haemoglobin led to the development of Casgevy, the first CRISPR-based medicinal treatment approved anywhere in the world for any disease. Casgevy works by ‘editing’ patients’ own blood stem cells.