According to information from the Breakthrough Award, five scientists, including Prof. Daniel Joshua Drucker, Professor. Joel Francis Habener, Professor. Jens Juul Holst, Associate Professor. Svetlana Mojsov - winners of the VinFuture Special Prize for Scientists researching new fields in 2023 - and Ms. Lotte Bjerre Knudsen were both honored with the Breakthrough Award in the field of Life Sciences with the pioneering work exploring the role of GLP-1.
The foundational contributions of this discovery - from the discovery of basic hormones through physiological knowledge to pharmaceutical development - have led to the emergence of highly effective diabetes and obesity drugs, opening a new era in the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders with glucagon-like peptides - 1 (GLP-1).
According to Breakthrough's evaluation, their breakthrough achievements include: Determining the GLP-1 hormone encoding gene; synthesize, isolate and describe the biological activity of this hormone; Prove that the GLP-1 production process in the intestine and its ability to stimulate its insulin production; Explain other diverse physiological roles, including cravings control and maintain energy balance; Developing a more stable hormone version can work continuously in the body for days instead of a few hours; And most importantly, convert these discoveries into a group of revolutionary drugs, changing the lives of hundreds of millions of people suffering from metabolic diseases worldwide.
Known as the Oscars of Science, the Breakthrough Award was initiated by business leaders from Silicon Valley to honor breakthrough scientific inventions in this era.
The Breakthrough Prize 2025 honors the breakthrough invention of the GLP-1 research group, following the worthy recognition that this group of scientists was honored with at the VinFuture Prize 2023.
Previously, in December 2023, at the VinFuture Awards Ceremony season 3, four scientists including Prof. Drucker, Prof. Habener, Associate Professor. Mojsov and Prof. Holst was awarded the VinFuture Special Prize for Scientists researching new fields worth 500,000 USD with a pioneering work exploring the role of GLP-1.
The project is a foundation for effective diabetes and obesity treatments, promoting new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, while laying the foundation and opening up new hope in treating more than 400 million people with type 2 diabetes, more than 1 billion people with obesity and more than 3 million people with short-term bowel syndrome. In 2023, there were more than 20 million doses of GLP-1 in use worldwide with an impressive increase of 6.7%.
VinFuture is also the first major international science and technology award to honor Associate Professor. Mojsov gave her contribution to this project.
Since the VinFuture Award, the group of GLP-1 project owners have been honored in many prestigious awards and rankings in the world. Notably, Time Magazine (USA) has voted for the Professors. Drucker, Prof. Habener and Associate Professor. Mojsov is in the Top 100 most influential people in the world in 2024 thanks to this project.
Although only entering the 5th year of operation, Vinfuture Awards increasingly affirm the stature and prestige when many owners of the awards are consecutively honored at prestigious international awards, especially the Nobel Prize. Typically, scientists TS. Katalin Kariko, GS. Drew Weissman (Vinfuture 2021 main award, Nobel Prize for Medicine 2023), PhD. Demis Hassabis, PhD. John Jumper (Vinfuture Special Prize, Nobel Chemistry 2024), and GS. Geoffrey Hinton (Vinfuture 2024 main award, Nobel Physics 2024).
