Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Hong Kong’s Shaw Prize given to 2 scientists for work on cystic fibrosis

Hong Kong’s Shaw Prize given to 2 scientists for work on cystic fibrosis

Award foundation praises scientists Paul Negulescu, Michael Welsh for their work on cystic fibrosis.

Two scientists who contributed to the study and the treatment of cystic fibrosis were among those announced on Tuesday to have received Hong Kong’s Shaw Prize this year.

Paul Negulescu, senior vice-president of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Michael Welsh, a professor at the University of Iowa, both received the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine for their contributions to the study and treatment of the disease.

According to the Shaw Prize Foundation, they were awarded for “landmark discoveries of the molecular, biochemical, and functional defects underlying cystic fibrosis and the identification and development of medicines that reverse those defects and can treat most people affected by this disorder”.

“Their most important discovery is that they can actually treat a genetic disease like cystic fibrosis without removing the abnormal gene,” said Professor Chan Wai-yee, a council member of the foundation.

The foundation also cited the pair’s work in identifying and developing medicines that could help treat the condition.

“That means they discovered a way of using chemical drugs, which can help the mutated product to perform like a normal product,” he said.

Cystic fibrosis is a severe single-gene disorder that affects more than 80,000 people globally. Patients with the fatal disease develop a build-up of sticky mucus in their lungs and digestive systems.

Paul Negulescu, senior vice-president of Vertex Pharmaceuticals.


Chan said that previous treatments had not addressed the abnormal gene which was the cause of the disease.

The annual Shaw Prize, which was founded by the late Hong Kong philanthropist Sir Run Run Shaw in 2002, is organised into three categories, which focus on astronomy, mathematical sciences, and life science and medicine.

Recipients for each category of the award are also granted US$1.2 million.

This year’s astronomy prize was shared between Lennart Lindegren, professor emeritus at Lund University in Sweden, and Michael Perryman, adjunct professor at University College Dublin in Ireland.

The pair were recognised for their lifetime contributions to space astrometry, with an emphasis on their contributions to the development of the European Space Agency’s Hipparcos and Gaia missions.

Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that focuses on measuring the positions and movements of celestial bodies.

“In this particular case, it is not astrometry of a few objects in the sky, but really a sort of an all-sky census, trying to look at just about everything in the Milky Way,” said Professor Kenneth Young, a vice-chairman of the prize’s board of adjudicators.

He said that the Hipparcos and Gaia missions, in which Lindegren and Perryman were both heavily involved, had produced “extremely accurate and extensive surveys” of the Milky Way galaxy, providing astronomers with decades worth of data.

Michael Welsh, professor at the University of Iowa.


The award for mathematical sciences was also shared this year, with University of Princeton Professor Noga Alon and Ehud Hrushovski, a professor of mathematical logic at the University of Oxford, receiving the prize for their contributions to discrete mathematics and model theory.

Alon is also an emeritus professor of mathematics and computer science at Tel Aviv University.

“All the scientific achievements that we celebrate in the Shaw Prize are really extremely important advances in human knowledge, and each contributes to the advance of humanity in its own unique and different ways,” said Young, who also serves as the foundation’s council chairman.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
×