NEW YORK — The Pershing Square Foundation announced the six winners of the “MIND” Prize (Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery). Through the Prize, the Foundation strives to change the paradigm of neuroscience research by creating a community of next-frontier thinkers who can uncover a deeper understanding of the brain and cognition. Breakthroughs in basic scientific and translational research will yield critical tools for and knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia, which affect millions of people worldwide.
The MIND Prize will catalyze novel interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work by facilitating collaborations across academic departments and institutions and amongst the academic, biomedical industry, philanthropic, and business communities. The 2025 Prize winners will each receive $750,000, distributed $250,000 per year for three years.
“The proverb—’the more I learn the less I know’ —properly captures the spirit of how I have often felt about neurodegenerative research. Still, despite, and indeed due to the complexity surrounding Cognitive Disease Disorders; it is essential that we continue to dive deeper to uncover and reveal the cellular basis of Alzheimer’s Disease and her siblings as we move towards new insights and resolution,” said Pershing Square Foundation Co-Trustee Neri Oxman, PhD. “We are proud to present the 2025 MIND Prize awardees whose work run the gamut from salamanders to humans, from basic research to applied investigations and therapy, and from treatment to holy grail of long-term prevention. We look forward to following their work and research with Socratic fervor.”
- Lucas Cheadle, PhD, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute: The Cheadle lab proposes a therapeutic strategy focused on harnessing a class of poorly understood brain cells, oligodendrocyte precursor cells, to actively protect vulnerable synapses from elimination in an effort to counteract cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s Disease.
- Katie Galloway, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Dr. Galloway is working on a two-step “Search and Rescue” strategy to address the challenges in advancing cell-based therapies for central nervous system repair. Induced pluripotent stem cells are first reprogrammed into microglia, which migrate to sites of injury, then converted into neurons to aid tissue repair and regeneration. This approach holds promise for slowing degeneration, repairing neural tissue, and restoring lost functions resulting from injury, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases.
- X. Shawn Liu, PhD, Columbia University Irving Medical Center: Dr. Liu’s work focuses on a novel therapeutic strategy to permanently reduce expanded DNA repeats linked to neurodegenerative disorders. Targeted DNA methylation editing has successfully been used to contract repeats and functionally rescue disease abnormalities in neurons derived from ALS and Frontal Temporal Dementia patients. The Liu lab now aims to apply this strategy to other models of neurodegenerative disease, aiming to prevent or slow disease progression.
- Michael Pacold, MD, PhD, NYU Grossman School of Medicine: Physician-scientist Dr. Pacold and his lab discovered that headgroup precursors of CoQ10—a crucial antioxidant for mitochondrial electron transport and reactive oxygen species neutralization—penetrate the blood-brain barrier. In his MIND Prize project, Dr. Pacold will investigate whether CoQ10 headgroup precursors can modify the progression of brain mitochondrial dysfunction in mouse models of aging and Alzheimer’s Disease.
- Elizabeth Pollina, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis: Dr. Pollina’s lab seeks to uncover genome protection mechanisms that safeguard vulnerable cell types from aging and degeneration. They will investigate how environmental stimuli and lifestyle factors, such as diet and sleep, influence the cell-type-specific accumulation of DNA damage by mapping genomic damage across diverse cells and identifying new repair pathways in the brain.
- Maria Antonietta Tosches, PhD, Columbia University: The Tosches lab explores brain resilience through the unique plasticity of salamanders, which can reversibly shift between states of low and high regenerative capacity based on environmental conditions. Her funded project will investigate how plasticity is triggered by environmental cues and how the brain undergoes structural and functional remodeling to support this plasticity, uncovering mechanisms that enhance resilience to injury and neurodegeneration.
“We are proud and inspired by the group of scientists representing our third year of the MIND Prize. Their projects are looking at creative new ways to understand the complexities of the human brain and neurodegeneration, and we look forward to seeing what comes next,” remarked Olivia Tournay Flatto, PhD, President of The Pershing Square Foundation. “We are grateful for our Scientific Advisory Board that guides our thinking as we aim to make an impact on fundamental science as well as disease prevention and therapy.”
