Chinese American Scientist David Liu to Receive Progeria Research Foundation Science & Medicine Award; Prime Editing Therapy From Company He Co-Founded Doses First Patient
The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) announced on October 7, via PR Newswire, that it will present its S.A.M. Award for Science & Medicine to Chinese American scientist David R. Liu at the 2026 Night of Wonder Gala, to be held on the evening of November 14 at the Westin Boston Seaport Hotel in Boston. The award, named for Sam Berns, who inspired PRF's founding, honors those who advance the science and medicine that will one day cure Progeria.
Liu is the inventor of base editing and a member of PRF's Progeria Gene Team. According to PRF, base editing functions like a "spell check" for DNA and is capable of correcting the single genetic mutation that causes Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome; the gene therapy SamPro-2, which he helped develop, is now advancing toward human trials. Progeria is a rare and fatal genetic disease that causes rapid aging in children.
"When you meet a child with Progeria, you understand immediately why this work can't wait," Liu said in the foundation's release. "A single genetic mutation is stealing their time, and until recently we had no way to correct that at its source." PRF Executive Director Audrey Gordon said Liu's groundbreaking work has put gene editing on the path to a cure for Progeria.
Liu is the Richard Merkin Professor and director of the Merkin Institute for Transformative Technologies in Healthcare at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a professor at Harvard University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He has published more than 300 papers, holds more than 115 U.S. patents, is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2026 Harvey Prize.
In a related development, Prime Medicine, a gene-editing company Liu co-founded, announced on October 5, via GlobeNewswire, that the first patient had been dosed in the global Phase 1/2 trial of PM577a, its in vivo Prime Editor therapy for Wilson disease patients carrying the H1069Q mutation in the ATP7B gene. PM577a is designed as a one-time intravenous infusion to correct the disease-causing mutation in liver cells, and the trial is the company's first clinical study of an in vivo Prime Editing therapy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Rare Pediatric Disease designation to PM577, and initial clinical data are expected in 2027. Prime Medicine Chief Executive Officer Allan Reine said dosing the first patient was a meaningful step toward delivering a transformative, one-time treatment for patients.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Broad研究所Merkin大楼（刘如谦任所长的Merkin Institute所在地，资料图） / The Broad Institute's Merkin Building in Cambridge, home to the Merkin Institute directed by David Liu (file photo). Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
