UC Berkeley chemist, biologist, entrepreneur awarded $500,000 Lemelson–MIT Prize

BERKELEY — Chemical biologist Carolyn Bertozzi of the University of California, Berkeley, will receive this year's $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, which honors inventors and entrepreneurs, according to an announcement today (Wednesday, June 2) by the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Named after the prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson, the annual prize honors an "outstanding mid-career inventor who is dedicated to improving our world through technological invention and innovation," according to the Lemelson-MIT Program's announcement. Bertozzi, the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, as well as investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), has developed innovative chemical reactions that can be performed on biological molecules, living cells and even in live animals without harming them. These reactions use non-toxic chemicals and have had application worldwide in the biopharmaceutical industry in efforts to diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer, arthritis and tuberculosis. "I am profoundly humbled by this exciting news," Bertozzi said. "This award will have a major positive impact on my ability to pursue entrepreneurial interests and has further stoked my motivation to translate what I invent in the laboratory into products that advance human health." Bertozzi, 43, received her B.S. in chemistry from Harvard University and her Ph.D.