The March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology honors leaders in the field. Their pioneering research offers hope and opportunity to one day prevent and treat some of the most serious birth defects and other human diseases. Each year outstanding scientist(s) are awarded the coveted March of Dimes Prize (VIDEO LINK) in Developmental Biology for research that has profoundly advanced the science that underlies our understanding of birth defects. The Prize has been awarded annually since 1996. The March of Dimes created the Prize as a tribute to Dr. Jonas Salk shortly before his death in 1995. Six recipients of the March of Dimes Prize to date have gone on to win the Nobel Prize® in Physiology or Medicine.
Prize Recipients:
2020
Susan Fisher, PhD
Director, Translational Research in Perinatal Biology & Medicine Center for Reproductive Sciences Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology, Reproductive Sciences University of California – San Francisco San Francisco, CA
For her research on the human placenta and its role in preeclampsia and other events that lead to preterm labor.
2019
Myriam Hemberger, PhD Director, Precision Medicine & Disease Mechanisms Program Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Medical Genetics University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada
For her leading research on the crucial role and impact of the placenta on pregnancy outcomes and embryonic defects.
2018
Allan C. Spradling, PhD Director, Department of Embryology Carnegie Institution for Science Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Carnegie Institution Baltimore, MD
For discovering the concept of the “stem cell niche”, the process by which embryogenesis proceeds sequentially.
2017
C. David Allis, PhD
The Joy and Jack Fishman Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics The Rockefeller University New York, NY
For unveiling the importance of histone acetylation and an epigenetic code in the control of gene expression through chromatin.
2016
Victor R. Ambros, PhD
Silverman Professor of Natural Science and CoDirector, RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School Gary B. Ruvkun, PhD Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Hans-Hermann Schoene Distinguished Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital
For making the seminal discovery of the conservation of short noncoding microRNAs and elucidating the mechanism by which translation of target mRNAs is controlled by microRNAs, thus providing explanations for developmental and physiological processes of great medical significance.
2015
Rudolf Jaenisch, MD
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and Professor of Biology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
For devising innovative technologies that elucidated long-standing dilemmas in developmental biology, for recognizing the transformative significance on cellular function of epigenetic programming, and for applying the power of induced pluripotent stem cells to novel discoveries.
2014
Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD
Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Director, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute
Texas Children's Hospital, Houston
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For discovery of the genetic basis of Rett syndrome and many other disorders and for opening new fields of research into the developmental biology of neurodegenerative diseases, as varied as autism and schizophrenia.
2013
Eric Olson, PhD
Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research
Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects
Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science
Department of Molecular Biology
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
For discovering genes and regulatory pathways governing development and growth of the cardiovascular system, and establishing a framework for how they function.
2012
Howard Green, MD
George Higginson Professor of Cell Biology
Department of Cell Biology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Elaine Fuchs, PhD
Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor
Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology & Development
Rockefeller University, New York, New York
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For revolutionizing the understanding of skin biology, creating crucial advances in treating skin cancers and other diseases as well as severe burns.
2011
Patricia Ann Jacobs, OBE, DSc, FRS
Co-Director of Research, Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Professor of Human Genetics, Southampton University Medical School
David C. Page, MD
Director, Whitehead Institute
Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For pioneering work in human cytogenetics and the normal and abnormal function and behavior of the X and Y chromosomes.
2010
Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD *
L.K. Whittier Foundation Investigator in Stem Cell Biology
Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease
Professor, University of California, San Francisco
Director, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application
Professor, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences
Kyoto University, Japan
For discovering how to reprogram adult skin cells into pluripotent embryonic-like adults stem cells.
2009
Kevin P. Campbell, PhD
Carver Chair, Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Director of the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center
Professor of Neurology and Internal Medicine
University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City, Iowa
Louis M. Kunkel, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Chief of the Division of Genetics
The Children’s Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
For their pioneering research that has led to major new insights into the genetic and molecular causes of muscular dystrophy.
2008
Clifford J. Tabin, PhD
George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor
Chair, Department of Genetics
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Philip A. Beachy, PhD
The Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor
Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, California
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For research on how certain master genes and protein signals regulate formation and growth of organs such as the brain and limbs during embryonic and fetal development.
2007
Dame Anne McLaren, DBE, DPhil, FRS, FRCOG
Principal Research Associate
Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute
University of Cambridge, England
Janet Rossant, PhD, FRS, FRS(C)
Chief of Research, The Hospital for Sick Children
University Professor, Departments of Medical Genetics & Microbiology and Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Toronto, Canada
For their remarkable contributions to our understanding of the entire cycle of mammalian reproduction and development, using the mouse as a model system.
2006
Alexander Varshavsky, PhD
Howard and Gwen Laurie Smits Professor of Cell Biology
Division of Biology
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
For explaining how ubiquitin, a tiny protein found in all living things, plays a major role in our lives by helping to regulate many crucial processes in human cells.
2005
Mario Capecchi, PhD *
Distinguished Professor and Co-Chairman
Department of Human Genetics
University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City
Oliver Smithies, DPhil, FRS *
Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
For the development of gene targeting in mice as a means of determining how genes function.
2004
Mary F. Lyon, PhD, FRS
Former Head, Genetic Section, MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit
Medical Research Council
Harwell, United Kingdom
For discovery of the process of X-chromosome inactivation.
2003
Pierre Chambon, MD
Professor and Director
Institute for Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology, INSERM
Strasbourg, France
Ronald M. Evans, PhD
Professor, Gene Expression Laboratory
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
For discovering nuclear hormone receptors and characterizing their structure and function.
2002
Seymour Benzer, PhD
Boswell Professor of Neurosciences Emeritus
Division of Biology
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Sydney Brenner, DPhil, FRS *
Distinguished Professor
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
For their tremendously influential bodies of work which have helped to revolutionize and open up productive new fields of study in molecular biology and genetics.
2001
Corey S. Goodman, PhD
Evan Rauch Professor of Neuroscience
Director, Wills Neuroscience Institute
University of California, Berkeley
Thomas M. Jessell, PhD, FRS
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Columbia University, New York, New York
For their extraordinary body of work that has helped revolutionize the molecular understanding of central nervous system development and function.
2000
H. Robert Horvitz, PhD *
Professor of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
For pioneering work in revealing genetic control over the active process of programmed cell death or apoptosis.
1999
Sir Richard L. Gardner, PhD, FRS
Henry Dale Research Professor of the Royal Society
University of Oxford, England, UK
Sir Martin J. Evans, PhD, DSc, FRS *
Professor of Mammalian Genetics
University of Cambridge, England, UK
For pioneering techniques to identify and grow the embryonic stem cells of mice in vitro and to introduce specific mutations into these cells.
1998
Davor Solter, MD, PhD
Director and Member, Max-Planck-Institute of Immunobiology
Department of Developmental Biology, Freiburg, Germany, and
Adjunct Senior Staff Scientist, The Jackson Laboratory
Bar Harbor, Maine
For pioneering the concept of gene imprinting.
1997
Walter J. Gehring, PhD
Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Biozentrum
University of Basel, Switzerland
David S. Hogness, PhD
Munzer Professor of Developmental Biology and Biochemistry
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
For discovery and analysis of homeobox genes.
1996
Beatrice Mintz, PhD
Senior Member, Institute for Cancer Research
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ralph L. Brinster, VMD, PhD
Richard King Mellon Professor of Reproductive Physiology
University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia
For development of the transgenic mouse.
2014
Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD
Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Director, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute
Texas Children's Hospital, Houston
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For discovery of the genetic basis of Rett syndrome and many other disorders and for opening new fields of research into the developmental biology of neurodegenerative diseases, as varied as autism and schizophrenia.
2013
Eric Olson, PhD
Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research
Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects
Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science
Department of Molecular Biology
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
For discovering genes and regulatory pathways governing development and growth of the cardiovascular system, and establishing a framework for how they function.
2012
Howard Green, MD
George Higginson Professor of Cell Biology
Department of Cell Biology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Elaine Fuchs, PhD
Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor
Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology & Development
Rockefeller University, New York, New York
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For revolutionizing the understanding of skin biology, creating crucial advances in treating skin cancers and other diseases as well as severe burns.
2011
Patricia Ann Jacobs, OBE, DSc, FRS
Co-Director of Research, Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Professor of Human Genetics, Southampton University Medical School
David C. Page, MD
Director, Whitehead Institute
Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For pioneering work in human cytogenetics and the normal and abnormal function and behavior of the X and Y chromosomes.
2010
Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD *
L.K. Whittier Foundation Investigator in Stem Cell Biology
Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease
Professor, University of California, San Francisco
Director, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application
Professor, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences
Kyoto University, Japan
For discovering how to reprogram adult skin cells into pluripotent embryonic-like adults stem cells.
2009
Kevin P. Campbell, PhD
Carver Chair, Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Director of the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center
Professor of Neurology and Internal Medicine
University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City, Iowa
Louis M. Kunkel, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Chief of the Division of Genetics
The Children’s Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
For their pioneering research that has led to major new insights into the genetic and molecular causes of muscular dystrophy.
2008
Clifford J. Tabin, PhD
George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor
Chair, Department of Genetics
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Philip A. Beachy, PhD
The Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor
Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, California
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For research on how certain master genes and protein signals regulate formation and growth of organs such as the brain and limbs during embryonic and fetal development.
2007
Dame Anne McLaren, DBE, DPhil, FRS, FRCOG
Principal Research Associate
Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute
University of Cambridge, England
Janet Rossant, PhD, FRS, FRS(C)
Chief of Research, The Hospital for Sick Children
University Professor, Departments of Medical Genetics & Microbiology and Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Toronto, Canada
For their remarkable contributions to our understanding of the entire cycle of mammalian reproduction and development, using the mouse as a model system.
2006
Alexander Varshavsky, PhD
Howard and Gwen Laurie Smits Professor of Cell Biology
Division of Biology
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
For explaining how ubiquitin, a tiny protein found in all living things, plays a major role in our lives by helping to regulate many crucial processes in human cells.
2005
Mario Capecchi, PhD *
Distinguished Professor and Co-Chairman
Department of Human Genetics
University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City
Oliver Smithies, DPhil, FRS *
Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
For the development of gene targeting in mice as a means of determining how genes function.
2004
Mary F. Lyon, PhD, FRS
Former Head, Genetic Section, MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit
Medical Research Council
Harwell, United Kingdom
For discovery of the process of X-chromosome inactivation.
2003
Pierre Chambon, MD
Professor and Director
Institute for Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology, INSERM
Strasbourg, France
Ronald M. Evans, PhD
Professor, Gene Expression Laboratory
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
For discovering nuclear hormone receptors and characterizing their structure and function.
2002
Seymour Benzer, PhD
Boswell Professor of Neurosciences Emeritus
Division of Biology
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Sydney Brenner, DPhil, FRS *
Distinguished Professor
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
For their tremendously influential bodies of work which have helped to revolutionize and open up productive new fields of study in molecular biology and genetics.
2001
Corey S. Goodman, PhD
Evan Rauch Professor of Neuroscience
Director, Wills Neuroscience Institute
University of California, Berkeley
Thomas M. Jessell, PhD, FRS
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Columbia University, New York, New York
For their extraordinary body of work that has helped revolutionize the molecular understanding of central nervous system development and function.
2000
H. Robert Horvitz, PhD *
Professor of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
For pioneering work in revealing genetic control over the active process of programmed cell death or apoptosis.
1999
Sir Richard L. Gardner, PhD, FRS
Henry Dale Research Professor of the Royal Society
University of Oxford, England, UK
Sir Martin J. Evans, PhD, DSc, FRS *
Professor of Mammalian Genetics
University of Cambridge, England, UK
For pioneering techniques to identify and grow the embryonic stem cells of mice in vitro and to introduce specific mutations into these cells.
1998
Davor Solter, MD, PhD
Director and Member, Max-Planck-Institute of Immunobiology
Department of Developmental Biology, Freiburg, Germany, and
Adjunct Senior Staff Scientist, The Jackson Laboratory
Bar Harbor, Maine
For pioneering the concept of gene imprinting.
1997
Walter J. Gehring, PhD
Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Biozentrum
University of Basel, Switzerland
David S. Hogness, PhD
Munzer Professor of Developmental Biology and Biochemistry
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
For discovery and analysis of homeobox genes.
1996
Beatrice Mintz, PhD
Senior Member, Institute for Cancer Research
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ralph L. Brinster, VMD, PhD
Richard King Mellon Professor of Reproductive Physiology
University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia
For development of the transgenic mouse.
* Indicates Nobel Prize recipient or co-recipient
