On April 5, 2025, Dr. David R. Liu stood in the spotlight at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, to receive the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences—one of the most prestigious honors in science.
Dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” the Breakthrough Prizes were launched in 2012 by tech philanthropists including Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Yuri and Julia Milner and Anne Wojcicki. These prizes recognize groundbreaking achievements in life sciences, physics, and mathematics, with each laureate receiving a $3 million award—more than twice the amount of a Nobel Prize.

The winners are selected by panels of previous Breakthrough Prize recipients, ensuring peer-driven recognition. The annual ceremony brings together not only the best minds in science but also celebrities, filmmakers, and tech industry leaders, creating an uncommon crossover between pop culture and research, in an effort to bring more public attention as well as funding to scientific achievement.

Dr. Liu was honored for inventing base editing and prime editing, technologies that allow precise, programmable rewriting of DNA to correct mutations linked to genetic disease—without introducing double-stranded breaks. These tools have rapidly transitioned from the bench to the clinic, with at least 15 clinical trials currently underway worldwide targeting diseases like sickle cell anemia, T-cell leukemia, and others.

Continue reading “Base Editing Brilliance: David Liu’s Breakthrough Prize and Its Impact”