Penn Medicine researcher Carl June was honored with the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences during its 10th annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles on April 13.
Nicknamed the “Oscars of Science,” the Breakthrough Prize event honors the achievements of the world’s premier scientists and their pioneering advancements to the fields of science and mathematics. It was founded and is funded by global public figures like Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, and Yuri and Julia Milner.
June received a $3 million prize for his work in developing chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy. The novel cancer treatment technique modifies a patient’s T cells — which help destroy infected and dangerous cells — to better target cancerous cells and improve the body’s ability to fight the disease.
With this recognition, June has become the sixth Breakthrough Prize laureate affiliated with Penn. He joins Alzheimer’s researcher Virginia Lee, physicists Charles Kane and Eugene Mele, and mRNA pioneers and Nobel laureates Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman.
The star-studded event on Saturday night was attended by Robert Downey Jr., Kim Kardashian, Venus Williams, Zoe Saldana, Alicia Keys, and Michelle Yeoh, among others, who presented the various awards to the honorees.
Actresses Olivia Wilde and Regina King presented the Life Sciences award to June — along with co-recipient Michel Sadelain of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
According to Penn Today, June’s acceptance speech highlighted the patients whose participation and trust in his untested experimental technique allowed him to develop CAR T cell therapy, which has treated over 34,000 people to date. Among the patients June mentioned was College first year Emily Whitehead, the first pediatric patient to undergo CAR T treatment.
“We’re so grateful to have some recognition for a lot of years of work on cancer research,” June said at the event. “I think the best thing is that people learn about this, that this came out of research right here in the country."
Also present at the event was Interim Penn President Larry Jameson, who praised June’s breakthrough efforts.
“Dr. June’s foundational work has not only brought hope and life to cancer patients,” Jameson said to Penn Today.
“He has also helped transform Penn and Philadelphia into a hub for cell and gene therapy research, teaching, and innovation. I think we all can expect many more breakthroughs to come.”
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