US biochemist researching treatment of HIV and coronaviruses wins Israel’s Wolf Prize

An American biochemist whose research has helped scientists make inroads into treating coronavirus and HIV has won this year’s Wolf Prize, a prestigious Israeli award in the arts and sciences.

Pamela Björkman of the California Institute of Technology won the prize for “offering new hope in the fight against infectious diseases,” the Wolf Fund, which awards the prize, said yesterday [Macau time].

Björkman’s research “unlocked the secrets of how the immune system identifies and battles pathogens, developing game changing approaches to combat some of humanity’s most formidable viral enemies,” the fund said.

Eight others also received the state-funded prize, which has been awarded annually for 47 years. Many of the award winners have gone on to receive Nobel prizes.

Björkman grew up in Oregon and studied at the University of Oregon, Harvard and Stanford before moving to Caltech to begin teaching in 1989. Her research focuses on how the immune system identifies invading pathogens.

She has broken ground, the fund said, in how scientists understand T-cell recognition and immunization strategies for HIV. T cells are white blood cells that help fight off diseases.