By revealing that animals could develop immune responses against their own tissues, the physician-scientist established an entirely new field of science.

Studying nonhuman primates, the University of Washington neuroscientist has identified important features of the neural underpinnings of learning and memory.

Through his studies on cancer-causing viruses, the University of California, Los Angeles, professor has helped develop lifesaving treatments.

The plant geneticist has revolutionized researchers’ understanding of how light affects plant growth and development, and is engineering plants to combat climate change.

Working with bacteriophages and nematodes, the University of California, Berkeley, molecular biologist uncovered a role for genetic switches in early development.

The cell and molecular biologist unveiled a role for the breakdown of proteins in the extracellular matrix in both healthy and pathogenic cells.

A love of music and science led the marine biologist to discover that whales sing songs, a discovery that he’s since used to convince the world the animals are worth saving.

The Albert Einstein College of Medicine neuroscientist has revealed surprising functions of the brain region, such as its role in the brain’s rewards circuits and in addiction.

By bringing genetics into clinical medicine, the University of British Columbia medical geneticist helped to identify the gene mutations responsible for many rare diseases.

By unraveling the molecular underpinnings of inherited blood disorders, the Boston Children’s Hospital researcher has provided the basis for therapies now being tested for beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease.

Developing computational tools to analyze the reams of microbial sequencing data his lab generates, the UC San Diego microbiologist is a pioneer of microbiome research.

The Carnegie Mellon computational biologist thinks machine learning algorithms can direct high-throughput experiments to solve the field’s unanswered questions.

The Mount Sinai oncologist studies innate immune cells with the goal of designing novel immunotherapies, including cancer vaccines.

A neurologist by training, Stefánsson founded Iceland-based deCODE Genetics to explore what the human genome can tell us about disease and our species’ evolution.

This University of California, Davis, botanist studies the genes that regulate plant anatomy.

By uncovering novel properties of a unique population of T cells, the Scripps Research Institute immunologist has helped to redefine the immune cells, uncovering their role in wound healing.

Studying how neural crest cells journey through the embryo, this Caltech developmental biologist has revealed how they form major cell types, including peripheral neurons, bone, and smooth muscle.

Turning to molecular genetics, the Baylor pediatric neurologist and geneticist works to discover the biological basis for the rare neurological diseases she sees in her patients.

The NIH epidemiologist has worked to ensure genetic health and population genetics studies contain data from African—not just European—populations.