Hoboken, N.J-February 21, 2024-The Wiley Foundation is pleased to announce that the 22nd annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences will be awarded to Judith Kimble, Allan Spradling, and Raymond Schofield for their discovery of the stem cell niche, a localized environment that controls stem cell identity. First awarded in 2002, The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences is presented annually to recognize contributions that have opened new fields of research or have advanced concepts in a particular biomedical discipline.
Judith Kimble is the Vilas Professor and Vannevar Bush Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also serves as Investigator Emeritus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Allan Spradling is Director Emeritus, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Raymond Schofield is formerly of the Paterson Laboratories, the Christie Hospital and the Holt Radium Institute, Manchester, England.
"I am thrilled that Drs. Schofield, Kimble, and Spradling have been selected to receive the Wiley Prize for their discovery of the stem cell niche. This niche is a cellular microenvironment that maintains stem cells in their naïve state and prevents them from differentiating. Their pioneering discovery, made by studying bone marrow stem cells and stem cells in the reproductive organs of C. elegans and Drosophila, has revealed how stem cells are regulated during human development and tissue maintenance," said Dr. Titia de Lange of Rockefeller University, Chair of the Wiley Prize awards jury.
"The Wiley Foundation honors research that not only offers breakthrough solutions to existing problems in biomedical sciences, but also fuels future discoveries," said Deborah Wiley, Chair of the Wiley Foundation. "The work of the 2024 Wiley Prize recipients truly upholds this mission, laying the foundation for today's life-changing discoveries in the field of stem cell biology."
Among the many distinguished recipients of the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, thirteen have gone on to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and two have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
This year's award of $50,000 will be presented to the winners at the Wiley Prize lecture, delivered as part of The Rockefeller University Friday Lecture Series at 3:30 pm EDT on April 5, 2024. The recording of the presentations will be available a few days after the event on the Wiley Foundation site and registration is free.
