Laureates of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics for the Year 2024

Prof. Cornelis (Cees) Dekker, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

For his seminal contributions to single-molecule biophysics, including the application of nanotechnology to biological systems, developing single-molecule techniques leading to breakthroughs in DNA and protein sequencing with nanopores, novel insights in DNA-protein interactions and chromosome organization, and experimental demonstration of DNA loop extrusion predicted by Prof. Mirny, as well as the development of synthetic cells.

Prof. Leonid Mirny, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

For his pioneering contributions to developing polymer models and theory, which have been instrumental for understanding and unraveling the physical mechanisms of DNA and chromosome topology and organization, including the folding principles of the human genome, compartmental segregation, epigenetic memory, and the formulation of the loop extrusion hypothesis, later to be experimentally observed by Prof. Dekker.

Prof. Petra Schwille , Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany

For her landmark contributions to molecular biophysics through the development of ultrasensitive spectroscopy methods to quantitatively elucidate single-molecule dynamics and for establishing the visionary concept of bottom-up synthetic biology, including a new paradigm for investigating the essence of life through minimalistic models of synthetic cells and reconstituted systems that mimic cellular organization and functions.