Gladstone to Present 2024 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize to Neuroscientist Rusty Gage

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.”

“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.”

Rusty Gage, PhD

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.