2022 Dickson Prize in Medicine

Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD

Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Bio

Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD, is the 2022 recipient of the Dickson Prize in Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s highest honor.

Bertozzi founded the field of "bioorthogonal chemistry," a class of chemical reactions compatible with living systems.

Bertozzi’s research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology, with an emphasis on studies of how sugar molecules on cell surfaces are important contributors to diseases like cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection. Her lab has identified ways to modify these sugar molecules through bioorthogonal chemistry – a method that employs chemical reactions that do not interfere with normal cellular processes. This approach has allowed her to develop new therapeutic approaches to treat many diseases, including most recently in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

In addition to her research, Bertozzi works actively to translate her science into new therapies. She has cofounded several startups, including Redwood Bioscience, Enable Biosciences, InterVenn Biosciences, OliLux Biosciences and Lycia Therapeutics.

Bertozzi earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Harvard University and her PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. After completing her postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, she joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2000, she became a Stanford University faculty member in 2015 and was among the first faculty to join the interdisciplinary institute known as Sarafan ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine for Human Health). She is now the Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H.

Bertozzi has received numerous national and international honors and awards for her research, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999 and the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2022. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dickson Prize in Medicine Winners

Nobel Prize Winners
Lasker Award Winners

2025 Sir Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD
2024 Leslie B. Vosshall, PhD
2023 Clifford Brangwynne, PhD
2022 Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD
2021 Cynthia Kenyon, PhD

2020

2020 James J. Collins, PhD
2019 Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD
2018 Bonnie Bassler, PhD
2017 David Sabatini, MD, PhD
2016 Jennifer Doudna, PhD
2015 Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD
2014 Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD
2013 Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD
2012 Brian J. Druker, MD
2011 J. Craig Venter, PhD

2010

2010 Stephen J. Elledge, PhD
2009 Victor R. Ambros, PhD
2008 Randy W. Schekman, PhD
2007 Carol W. Greider, PhD
2006 Roger D. Kornberg, PhD
2005 Ronald W. Davis, PhD
2004 Elaine Fuchs, PhD
2003 Susan L. Lindquist, PhD
2002 C. David Allis, PhD
2001 Robert G. Roeder, PhD

2000

2000 Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD
1999 James E. Darnell Jr., MD
1998 Richard D. Klausner, MD
1997 Edward E. Harlow Jr., PhD,
and Eric S. Lander, PhD
1996 Philippa Marrack, PhD
1995 Ronald M. Evans, PhD
1994 Bert Vogelstein, MD
1993 Stanley B. Prusiner, MD
1992 Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD
1991 Phillip A. Sharp, PhD

1990

1990 Ernst Knobil, PhD
1989 Bernard Moss, MD, PhD
1988 Leroy E. Hood, MD, PhD
1987 Elvin A. Kabat, PhD
1986 J. Michael Bishop, MD
1985 Robert C. Gallo, MD
1984 Solomon H. Snyder, MD
1983 Eric R. Kandel, MD
1982 Francis H. Ruddle, PhD
1981 Philip Leder, MD

1980

1980 David H. Hubel, MD,
and Torsten N. Wiesel, MD
1979 Bert W. O’Malley, MD
1978 Paul Greengard, PhD
1977 Roger Guillemin, MD, PhD
1976 Frank J. Dixon, MD
1975 Elizabeth F. Neufeld, PhD
1974 Stephen W. Kuffler, MD
1973 John H. Gibbon Jr., MD
1972 Solomon A. Berson, MD,
and Rosalyn S. Yalow, PhD
1971 Earl W. Sutherland Jr., MD