Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been awarded the 21st annual Nierenberg Prize from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. The prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to science in the public interest.
Gordon, director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at WashU Medicine, is credited with founding the field of gut microbiome research. His transformative studies have demonstrated that human health and disease are shaped by the communities of microbes that live in the human gut. His body of work has opened up the vast new therapeutic potential for the microbiome, exemplified by his identification of ways to repair the gut microbiomes of children with malnutrition and restore their healthy growth.
“The public is becoming increasingly aware of the microbiome,” Gordon said. “As such, there is a need to mindfully deal with the body of evidence emerging from bench-to-bedside translation that culminates with carefully designed, rigorously performed, well-controlled clinical trials. Specifically, we need to engage in a discussion about the ethical, regulatory and other societal issues raised by the results of this research. Microbiome research is helping us understand the impact of Westernization, the origins of our health disparities as well as the existential threat posed by climate change.”
The Nierenberg Prize has been awarded to a diverse list of recipients whose work has had an indelible impact on science in the public interest. Past honorees include primatologist Jane Goodall, Intel founder Gordon Moore, evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, climate scientist James Hansen, nature filmmaker David Attenborough, news anchor Walter Cronkite, Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron, CRISPR-Cas9 co-discoverer Jennifer Doudna, and, most recently, Katalin Kariko, who also was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her contributions to the development of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. The Nierenberg Prize honors the memory of William A. Nierenberg, who led Scripps for more than 20 years.