Wesley Sundquist Earns World Laureates Association Prize
Samuels Professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah, has been awarded the World Laureates Association (WLA) Prize in Life Science or Medicine for his discoveries related to essential pathways that help sort and move proteins within cells.
The WLA Prize was established in 2021 to recognize the world’s leading researchers and technologists. With a 10M yuan award, equivalent to about $1.41M, the WLA Prize is one of the largest scientific awards in the world. Sundquist shares this honor with Scott Emr, PhD, professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University.
Research in Sundquist's lab first showed that the HIV virus uses a cellular pathway called ESCRT (endosomal sorting complexes required for transport; pronounced "escort") to escape host cells. The Sundquist lab's work also characterized this fundamental pathway in humans. Their results relied upon the Emr lab's discovery of the ESCRT pathway.
The WLA Prize represents the latest in a long line of Sundquist’s accolades, which include the 2024 Horwitz prize, the , and recognition as one of °Õ±õ²Ñ·¡â€™s 100 most influential people in the world. Lenacapavir, a drug developed by Gilead Sciences based on research from the Sundquist lab on the structure of the HIV virus, was also named ³§³¦¾±±ð²Ô³¦±ð’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year.