2026 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Awarded for Gene-Editing Therapies

The 2026 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to five scientists for their work leading to curative genetic therapies for two major blood disorders: sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. These diseases affect millions of people around the world.

The awardees are:

• Swee Lay Thein, senior investigator and chief of the Sickle Cell Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health
• Stuart Orkin, the Harvard Medical School David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute