NEW YORK, NY (September 4, 2025) - Columbia University will award the 2025 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Kevin Campbell, Louis Kunkel, and Eric Olson for discoveries that revealed the biological causes of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and provide the foundation for breakthrough treatments for this and related muscular diseases.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a severe genetic disorder affecting approximately 1 in every 3,500 to 5,000 male births worldwide. The disease is caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, which is essential for the stability of muscle fibers and the heart. Without intervention, Duchenne muscular dystrophy begins to impair mobility in adolescence, and can progress rapidly, causing early death from heart and lung failure.
In 1986, Kunkel identified the gene that, when mutated, causes Duchenne muscular dystrophy. A year later, his team documented the protein the gene makes, called dystrophin. This was a landmark discovery in human genetics and laid critical groundwork for all subsequent research into the disease.
Campbell's pioneering work revealed that dystrophin proteins form structural scaffolds with glycoproteins-proteins with sugar molecules attached to them-inside the cell and disrupting these scaffolds destabilizes muscle fibers. This work provided essential insights into the biological causes of several forms of muscular dystrophies, which has profound implications for the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.
Olson identified key molecules that control muscle cell development, growth, and function. Building on these foundational advances, Olson is spearheading the development of gene-targeted treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other muscular diseases that are now progressing toward clinical trials and have the potential to reshape the therapeutic landscape.
Together, these three scientists who are being honored by this year's Horwitz prize serve as brilliant examples of bench-to-bedside research, having forged a path from fundamental discovery to transformative therapeutic innovations. Their collective work has advanced our scientific understanding of muscular dystrophies and brought real hope to thousands of families affected by these devastating diseases.
Campbell, Kunkel, and Olson are the 119th, 120th, and 121st winners of the Horwitz Prize, which is awarded annually by Columbia University for groundbreaking work in medical science. Of the 118 previous Horwitz Prize winners, 55 have gone on to subsequently receive Nobel Prizes.
Awardee Biographies
Kevin Campbell, PhD, received his BS in physics from Manhattan College and his PhD in biophysics from the University of Rochester. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Iowa in 1981. Campbell is currently Roy J. Carver Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and director of the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Specialized Research Center at the University of Iowa, and an investigator emeritus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Louis Kunkel, PhD, received his BA from Gettysburg College and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco before joining Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow. He was appointed an instructor in 1982, and then an associate professor. Kunkel is now a professor of genetics and pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and an investigator emeritus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Eric Olson, PhD, received his BA and PhD from Wake Forest University. After postdoctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis, he joined the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as an assistant professor in 1984. In 1995, Olson founded the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he is the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science, the Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research and the Pogue Distinguished Chair.
References
About the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize was established in 1967 by the late S. Gross Horwitz. It is named in honor of the donor's mother, Louisa Gross Horwitz, who was the daughter of Dr. Samuel David Gross (1805-89), a prominent Philadelphia surgeon who served as president of the American Medical Association and wrote "Systems of Surgery." Of the 118 Horwitz Prize winners to date, 55 have gone on to also win Nobel Prizes. Most recently, 2009 Horwitz Prize winners Victor Ambros, PhD, and Gary Ruvkun, PhD, shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. For a list of previous Horwitz Prize awardees, please click here.
The 2025 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize lectures and dinner will take place on March 12, 2026 with details to be shared later on the Horwitz Prize lecture website
