Lasker Awards Honor Sleep Science Breakthroughs, Hemophilia Treatment and Michael J. Fox’s Advocacy

The Lasker Foundation announced the 2025 recipients of its prestigious biomedical awards on September 9, with ceremonies scheduled for September 17 in New York City. Each of the three awards carries a $250,000 honorarium. The honors celebrate fundamental discoveries in sleep regulation, a revolutionary therapy for hemophilia, and sustained public service advocacy for Parkinson’s disease patients.

Dr. Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University School of Medicine and Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Tsukuba in Japan shared the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. The duo independently identified orexins, key neurotransmitters in the brain that regulate the sleep-wake cycle and are absent in individuals with certain forms of narcolepsy.

Yanagisawa described his initial research as a “biochemical fishing expedition” aimed at identifying triggers for so-called orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). By isolating peptides from rat brains, his team discovered two related peptides originating in the hypothalamus. Although initially named after the Greek word for appetite, further studies revealed their primary function is promoting wakefulness. Mice lacking functional orexin genes were found to experience sudden transitions into REM sleep, mirroring symptoms of narcolepsy with cataplexy.

Meanwhile, Mignot was investigating the causes of narcolepsy and discovered that orexin deficiency was also responsible for the condition in dogs. He subsequently confirmed the mechanism in humans. Yanagisawa noted that prior to these findings, sleep research relied on damaging brain tissue to observe behavioral changes, lacking a molecular or genetic framework. These converging discoveries have since enabled the development of orexin receptor antagonists for insomnia and orexin receptor agonists for narcolepsy, with the latter class receiving FDA approval in August.

The Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award was presented to Kunihiro Hattori, Takehisa Kitazawa, and Tomoyuki Igawa of Chugai Pharmaceutical in Japan. They developed emicizumab, marketed as Hemlibra, an antibody treatment for hemophilia A, a severe bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency in factor VIII.

The treatment works by binding factors IX and X to create a structure that mimics the function of missing factor VIII, thereby facilitating normal blood clotting. Hattori conceived the approach in 2000, while Kitazawa and Igawa applied pharmacology and chemical engineering to bring the drug to fruition. Approved by the FDA in 2017, Hemlibra has since received approval in over 100 countries and has been administered to more than 30,000 patients.

The Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award was bestowed upon actor and philanthropist Michael J. Fox for his leadership in Parkinson’s disease research advocacy. Fox, who was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s in 1990 at age 29, publicly disclosed his condition in 1998 to help dismantle the stigma surrounding the disease.

Recognizing a critical lack of funding for research, Fox established The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000. Since its founding, the foundation has supported more than $3 billion in research initiatives. In a statement, Fox expressed humility at the recognition, saying, “I accept this honor on behalf of everyone living with Parkinson’s and everyone with us in our shared mission to end the disease.”