image: Rusty Gage is awarded the 2024 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize for reshaping our understanding of stem cells in the adult brain and making landmark discoveries that may contribute to the development of new or better therapies for neurological disorders.
Credit: Photo: Salk Institute
SAN FRANCISCO—Neuroscientist Rusty Gage, PhD, will be the recipient of the 2024 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize, awarded by Gladstone Institutes. He was selected for pioneering stem cell biology of the central nervous system and the use of reprogrammed cells to study age-related neurodegenerative disease and psychiatric disorders.
Gage is a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he also serves as the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease. He was president of the Salk Institute from 2018 to 2023.
Over the course of his scientific career, Gage has made several paradigm-shifting contributions to the fields of neuroscience and stem cell biology. He was the first to show that the brain can produce new neurons in human adulthood and that this process is required for certain types of learning and memory. By doing so, he overturned a century of scientific dogma that viewed the adult brain as immutable, paving the way for new approaches to treat neurodegenerative disorders that were previously believed to be irreversible.
“We’re pleased to present this year’s award to such a well-deserving scientist,” says Deepak Srivastava, MD, chair of the selection committee and president of Gladstone. “Rusty’s influential body of work in the stem cell field has helped drive advances that could lead to new or better therapies for many high-need neurological diseases affecting millions of people.”
The Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize, established in 2015 by a generous gift from the Hiro and Betty Ogawa family, honors scientists conducting groundbreaking work in translational regenerative medicine using reprogrammed cells.
Supported by Gladstone and Cell Press, the prize is also named in honor of Gladstone Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD. Yamanaka received a Nobel Prize in 2012 for his discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which are adult cells that can be reprogrammed to a stem-cell state similar to human embryonic stem cells.
“The ability to reprogram adult cells to alternative states set the stage for a revolution in stem cell biology,” says Gage. “Being able to use patient-derived cells to understand the cellular and molecular bases of the patient’s disease is transformative, and I’m honored to be recognized for my work that builds on this technology.”
Gage also made his mark as one of the first scientists to use reprogrammed cells to effectively model human age-dependent neurological diseases. His lab developed methods to transform patient-derived skin cells directly into specific types of neurons in order to study a range of diseases in a dish, including Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and bipolar disorder. Importantly, these directly reprogrammed cells retain hallmarks of the patient’s age, allowing for better modeling of age-related diseases than previously possible from iPS cells.
In addition to his scientific achievements, Gage has served as president of the Society for Neuroscience and the International Society for Stem Cell Research, as co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, and on the scientific advisory boards of several disease foundations. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University.
Gage was selected from an accomplished pool of nominees by an independent committee of international stem cell experts. As the winner of the 2024 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize, he will receive an unrestricted prize of $150,000. Gladstone will host a ceremony on December 3, 2024, during which Gage will give a scientific lecture and be presented with the award.
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About Rusty Gage
Rusty Gage, PhD, is a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, as well as the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is also an adjunct professor at UC San Diego and immediate past president of Salk Institute.
He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Gage’s work concentrates on the adult central nervous system and the unexpected plasticity and adaptability to environmental stimulation that remain throughout the life of all mammals. In addition, he models human neurological and psychiatric disease in vitro using human stem cells. His lab also studies the genomic mosaicism that exists in the brain as a result of mobile elements that are active during neurogenesis.
Gage has published more than 900 scientific papers and is one of the most cited researchers in neuroscience. He has mentored many young scientists over the course of his 40-year academic career, and his trainees have pursued successful academic careers at many top research institutions around the world, including Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Kyoto University, and the University of Zürich.
Gage is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a foreign member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. Gage served as president of the Society for Neuroscience in 2002 and of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in 2012.
About the Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize
The Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize recognizes individuals whose original translational research has advanced cellular reprogramming technology for regenerative medicine. Supported by Gladstone Institutes, in partnership with Cell Press, the prize was established in 2015 through a generous gift from Betty and Hiro Ogawa. It has been maintained through their sons, Andrew and Marcus Ogawa, to honor the Ogawas’ memory by continuing the philanthropic legacy they shared during their 46-year marriage. It also recognizes the importance of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), discovered by Gladstone Senior Investigator and Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD.
Past recipients include Masayo Takahashi, MD, PhD, in 2015; Douglas Melton, PhD, in 2016; Lorenz Studer, MD, in 2017; Marius Wernig, MD, PhD, in 2018; Gordon Keller, PhD, in 2019; Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, PhD, in 2022; and Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, PhD, in 2023.
The 2024 selection committee was composed of George Daley, MD, PhD, dean of Harvard Medical School; Hideyuki Okano, MD, PhD, dean of the School of Medicine at Keio University; Deepak Srivastava, MD, president of Gladstone Institutes and director of the Roddenberry Stem Cell Center at Gladstone; Lorenz Studer, MD, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Fiona Watt, FRS, FMedSci, director of the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King’s College, London; and Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, senior investigator at Gladstone and professor in the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application at Kyoto University.
About Gladstone Institutes
Gladstone Institutes is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. Established in 1979, it is located in the epicenter of biomedical and technological innovation, in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. Gladstone has created a research model that disrupts how science is done, funds big ideas, and attracts the brightest minds.