Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin of Google and venture capitalist Yuri Milner created the foundation to honor excellence in life sciences with 11 individual prizes of $ 3 million

The Aristocrats Silicon Valley

Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Yuri Milner jointly established the annual prize most lucrative in the history of science to reward research to cure disease and prolong life.

The Breakthrough Award newly created Foundation Life Sciences announced Wednesday the first 11 winners of a prize designed to inject excitement into solitude missions sometimes financial means to understand and combat cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other diseases.

Zuckerberg, Facebook founder Brin, co-founder of Google, and Milner, a venture capitalist, their fortunes declined in sponsoring prizes worth $ 3 m each, compared to the value Nobel Prize money of 1.1 billion m.

"With the mapping of the genome sequence there are expectations of significant progress in the next 10 or 20 years, so I think the time is really advisable to create an incentive for the best scientific minds" Milner told the Guardian in an interview on the eve of the announcement.

A Russian Internet investor who left a PhD in physics and investing in social networks, Milner persuaded his fellow billionaires Internet generosity to help promote a new generation of molecular biologists and geneticists. "Young people should receive the message that not only a career in sports and entertainment can get public recognition."

Milner, who has homes in Moscow and California distributed prizes last year for the field of fundamental physics. They were also each value of $ 3 million, with nine winners received a total of $ 27 million. A committee was formed to determine the winner or winners ex aequo, the annual planned for the coming years.

Milner decided to replicate the model in a larger scale for the life sciences. "Unfortunately, I have two relatives of a very bad disease, one of them is cancer. This is part of my personal connection with this award. "

In honor of the 11 scientists named Wednesday, which together receive 33 million dollars, he approached Zuckerberg, he knows since he bought one at $ 200 million in Facebook 2009. As investment Brin, a businessman Russian-American, although sometimes irritable relationship with Google Facebook. Brin married Anne Wojcicki, has been named as one of the sponsors of the room.

They split the cost of the five inaugural and subsequent annual awards totaling $ 15 million. "Yuri led to this," said Art Levinson, Apple's CEO, who will also chair the new foundation. This marked an unusual partnership philanthropy in Silicon Valley, said. "In my mind this is not the case before."


The price was intended to make a statement. "It's a lot of money, yes. But the people who make games that change contributions are often researchers who work without much recognition or much fanfare and without compensation. It seems to me that these are the real heroes, "said Levinson.

beneficiaries who come from the United States, Japan, Italy and the Netherlands, expressed his surprise and joy at prices that will be officially announced on Wednesday at a conference Press in San Francisco.

"I had to sit on the floor for a while. I thought it was a joke or a Nigerian scam, "said Cornelia Bargmann, 51, who has been a pioneer in neuronal circuits Behavior at Rockefeller University. "The scale of this is so huge that I think it will have a huge impact on the life sciences." Asked how she would spend the money she hesitated. "It's so far from my normal schedule, I do not know. Get the car? "

Hans Clevers , 55, professor of molecular genetics at the Hubrecht Institute, which opened the way for research on stem cells and colon cancer, said he had recovered from Levinson notified last week. "Gone a bit. When I asked for money, he said he intended to make life easier." Clevers said it would use part of the windfall to invite about 150 employees at a symposium in Amsterdam. "We'll have a big party."


The announcement comes just days before the Oscars, but it is more likely to steal evidence to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel Prize. " Everyone online may appoint a person to an award-winning breaking and organizers expect scientists tend to be still in his prime, but retired scientists honored decades of research.


No limit on the number of people who can share a prize, unlike the Nobel Prize to three plugs. Each year, the winners will join with the selection committee vote more secretly in the future winners. Contrary to Stockholm without much ceremony in San Francisco, but the winners are expected to give speeches and interviews during the year.

Lewis Cantley, director of the Oncology Center at Weill Cornell Medical College, whose work on the lines of mutation could help tackle diabetes and other genetic diseases, said she was overwhelmed when informed of the news. "I almost fell. I did not even know such an award exists." He turned 64 on Wednesday.
Titia de Lange, 57, who is studying cell biology, genetics and cancer of Rockefeller University, said that the estimated price surreal. "I do not usually have a lot of money. I do not really real. "Two women in a list of 11 fairly reflects the percentage of women who work at this level, he said." Would you like it to be higher, of course. "


one of the oldest winners, David Botstein, 70, master of genomics on sabbatical at Princeton, he expressed some concern about the amount of money and said he would give a some trash. He thanked the sponsors, but regretted that the payment was necessary to shine the media and public life sciences. "Over the last 30 or 40 years, there has been rapid progress, but I can not hear it."
Breakthrough Award
: full list of winners Opening


1 Cornelia Bargmann


Torsten Wiesel Professor and Head of Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of neural circuits and behavior Rockefeller University. Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
For genetic neural circuits and behavior, and synaptic molecules GuidePost.

2 David Botstein Professor and Director of the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and Hospital New York-Presbyterian. for the discovery of the PI 3-kinase and its role in cancer metabolism.

professor of molecular genetics at the Hubrecht Institute.
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