VEGF Discoverer Napoleone Ferrara Wins 2026 Yergin Family Biomedical Prize

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has named Napoleone Ferrara, MD, Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Hildyard Endowed Chair in Eye Disease at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, as the recipient of the 2026 Yergin Family International Prize for Biomedical Research. The award recognizes a discovery that reshaped two of the largest fields in modern medicine: the treatment of cancer and the treatment of blinding diseases of the retina. Ferrara is being honored for his identification of vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, the master molecular signal that instructs blood vessels to sprout, grow, and remodel. Few single molecules have been linked so directly to therapies that have reached many millions of patients worldwide.

The prize itself carries a layered history. Known previously as the Yergin-New International Prize for Biomedical Research, it was renamed this year in recognition of the Yergin family’s longstanding support of the program. It commemorates Maria I. New, MD, the groundbreaking Mount Sinai pediatric endocrinologist who passed away in 2024 and whose six-decade career transformed the understanding and treatment of adrenal steroid disorders. The prize, now in its fifth year, is awarded annually to a distinguished physician-scientist whose lifetime achievements have led, or may lead, to new ways to prevent and treat human disease, and it has quickly become regarded as one of the foremost international honors in medical research.

Ferrara will receive a $50,000 award and deliver the Yergin Family Distinguished Lecture during a ceremony at Mount Sinai in New York City on Wednesday, November 18. The recognition caps a career that has already earned election to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, along with the 2010 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and the 2014 Canada Gairdner International Award. Together, these honors trace an unusually complete arc from basic discovery to clinical revolution.

The scientific story began in earnest in 1989, when Ferrara and his colleagues isolated and cloned VEGF, finally pinning down the biological signal responsible for angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. The problem they tackled had puzzled vascular biologists for decades. Tumors, embryonic tissues, and healing wounds all emit some diffusible factor that coaxes nearby capillaries to extend toward them, but the identity of that factor remained elusive. By purifying and cloning the molecule, Ferrara’s team gave the field both a concrete target and a powerful set of experimental tools, including antibodies and genetic models that could test what VEGF actually does in living organisms.

Subsequent work revealed a biology of elegant duality. VEGF is indispensable for normal blood-vessel development, guiding the vascular system as it wires the embryo and maintains tissue health in adulthood. Yet the same signaling pathway, when overactive, becomes an engine of disease. Ferrara’s laboratory demonstrated that tumors exploit VEGF to sustain angiogenesis, supplying themselves with the oxygen and nutrients needed to grow beyond a few millimeters. In the eye, excessive VEGF drives the abnormal, leaky vessel growth that destroys vision in neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other retinal diseases. The insight that a single pathway could be both essential and pathological set the stage for a new therapeutic strategy: block the signal, and starve the disease.

That strategy bore fruit in oncology first. Ferrara’s group showed that neutralizing VEGF could slow tumor growth in preclinical models, an achievement that led directly to bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody designed to bind VEGF and prevent it from activating its receptors on blood-vessel cells. In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bevacizumab for metastatic colorectal cancer, making it the first anti-angiogenic cancer therapy ever approved. Anti-VEGF approaches have since become part of standard treatment for several malignancies, including colorectal, kidney, lung, cervical, and ovarian cancers. In hepatocellular carcinoma, combinations of anti-VEGF drugs with immunotherapy are now standard of care, reflecting a growing understanding that pruning a tumor’s vasculature can also reshape the immune environment around it.

The ophthalmic branch of the story proved equally transformative. Ferrara and his collaborators established that VEGF is a key driver of neovascular age-related macular degeneration, in which rogue vessels invade the retina and leak fluid into tissue that must remain dry and precisely layered to support sight. Their work led to ranibizumab, an antibody fragment engineered for intraocular use, and helped establish anti-VEGF injection therapy as the standard of care for several serious eye disorders. For patients who once faced inevitable central vision loss, the ability to preserve or even improve sight through regular treatment has been one of the most consequential clinical advances of the past two decades.

Leaders at Mount Sinai framed the award as a case study in the value of fundamental research. “Dr. Ferrara’s work is a remarkable example of how a fundamental discovery in biology can change the course of medicine,” said Mone Zaidi, MD, PhD, MACP, Director of Mount Sinai’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology and Mount Sinai Professor of Clinical Medicine. “By identifying VEGF and demonstrating its role in blood-vessel growth, he opened the door to treatments that have changed outcomes for patients with cancer and serious eye diseases around the world.” Daniel Yergin, PhD, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and economic historian who endowed the prize along with his wife, foreign policy expert Angela Stent, PhD, echoed that theme: “Napoleone Ferrara’s discovery demonstrates the extraordinary impact that fundamental biomedical research can have on human health. His work has transformed the treatment of cancer and blinding eye diseases and continues to influence the development of new therapies.”

Ferrara’s laboratory has not rested on its accomplishments. His current research continues to probe VEGF and other pathways governing blood-vessel growth, with two clinical problems in sharp focus. The first is treatment burden: patients with retinal disease typically require frequent intraocular injections, and his team is developing longer-acting therapies that could extend the interval between treatments. The second is geographic atrophy, the advanced, dry form of age-related macular degeneration, for which treatment options remain limited and which represents one of the largest unmet needs in ophthalmology. Both efforts extend the same logic that produced the original breakthrough, namely that understanding the molecular machinery of the vasculature reveals new points of therapeutic intervention.

The selection process behind the award reflects its international ambitions. Winners are chosen by a jury of distinguished physician-scientists chaired by Dr. Zaidi. The 2026 jury included Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion in Haifa; Nancy Andrews of Boston Children’s Hospital; Michael J. Welsh of the University of Iowa; Jeffrey Friedman of The Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Anna Wedell of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. “We are grateful to the distinguished members of the international jury for dedicating their time and expertise to reviewing this year’s exceptional group of nominees and selecting Dr. Ferrara as the recipient,” Dr. Zaidi said. Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, noted that the award was first established in honor of Dr. New and her extraordinary legacy, and expressed gratitude for the vision of Daniel Yergin and Angela Stent in endowing the program to live in perpetuity. “Dr. Ferrara’s achievements reflect the lasting impact of research that begins with fundamental questions and ultimately changes the way diseases are treated,” Nestler said. Administered by Mount Sinai’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, the prize stands as both a tribute to Maria New’s legacy and a reminder that the path from a cloned molecule to medicines used around the world often begins with a single, persistent question about how life works.

Subject of Research: Award of the 2026 Yergin Family International Prize for Biomedical Research to VEGF discoverer Napoleone Ferrara

Article Title: Napoleone Ferrara, MD, receives 2026 Yergin Family International Prize for Biomedical Research

Article References: Napoleone Ferrara, MD, receives 2026 Yergin Family International Prize for Biomedical Research. (n.d.). Original publication

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Keywords: Napoleone Ferrara, VEGF, angiogenesis, Yergin Family Prize, Mount Sinai, bevacizumab, ranibizumab, age-related macular degeneration, cancer therapy, anti-angiogenic treatment, retinal disease, biomedical research award