image: The Brain Prize medal is awarded to the Brain Prize recipients by HM The King of Denmark at a ceremony in Copenhagen in May.
Credit: The Lundbeck Foundation PR
Gliomas are types of cancers that arise in the brain and are extraordinarily difficult to treat. They are the leading cause of brain tumour-related deaths in both children and adults. Two pioneering scientists are awarded The Brain Prize 2025 for their discoveries that open up an entirely new way of thinking about and understanding these lethal diseases, and the potential strategies to treat them.
Copenhagen, Denmark, March 5th, 2025. Neuroscientists, Professors Michelle Monje (USA) and Frank Winkler (Germany), have made transformative discoveries by showing that neural activity in the brain can promote cancer initiation, growth, spread and treatment resistance. Thus, the everyday activity that takes place in the brain promotes the development of cancers within it. Striking recent studies further show that the influence of the nervous system is not limited to tumours in the brain, but also tumours throughout the body.
These remarkable findings have laid the foundation for an entirely new field of research called ‘Cancer Neuroscience’ that represents a paradigm shift in the understanding of these cancers, and which offers vital new opportunities for treatment.
Their efforts are rewarded with The Brain Prize 2025, the world’s largest award for outstanding contributions to neuroscience, established by the Lundbeck Foundation.
The Brain Prize 2025 worth DKK 10 million (€1.3 million) is awarded to:
Michelle Monje MD, PhD, the Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Stanford Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator,
and
Frank Winkler, MD, Professor of Experimental Neurooncology,
Heidelberg University, Heidelberg University Hospital, Department of Neurology, and German Cancer Research Center
for:
Pioneering Cancer Neuroscience: Disease-driving interactions between the brain and brain tumours.
Chair of The Brain Prize Selection Committee, Professor Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, explains the reasoning behind this year’s award:
“Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumours. They are very difficult to cure, and the more rapidly growing forms are almost universally fatal. Working independently, Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler have transformed our understanding of the biology of these neurological cancers.
They have discovered extensive interactions between glioma cells and neurons and have characterized their molecular and cellular basis. These networks exhibit hallmarks of functional neural circuits such as synapses, electrical and chemical communication and coordinated activity.
These mechanisms allow glioma cells to hijack activity in the brain to drive tumour growth, spread and treatment resistance. Strategies to modulate these interactions offer novel approaches for potential new glioma therapies.
Together, Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler have pioneered a paradigm shift incorporating neuroscience into cancer research, forming what is now called ‘Cancer Neuroscience’. Both are practicing neurooncologists and exemplary clinician-scientists who have actively moved their mechanistic work into clinical trials.”
On behalf of the Lundbeck Foundation, CEO Lene Skole extends her warmest congratulations to each of The Brain Prize recipients:
“The pioneering work of this year’s Brain Prize recipients on brain cancer is a striking example of how a new perspective and scientific approach can provide a completely new level of understanding of the brain and its diseases. The crucial new insights into the neuroscience of brain cancers provided by Professors Monje and Winkler have also unlocked enormous potential for developing new and much- needed treatment approaches. Cancer Neuroscience is a new field of research and hopefully the prize will inspire more researchers, both younger and experienced ones, to enter this exciting field.”