Paola Arlotta Receives the 2025 ISSCR Momentum Award
Honored for Innovative Work Using Stem Cell-Derived Brain Organoids to Study Human Brain Development and Disease
The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is honoring Paola Arlotta, Ph.D., with this year’s ISSCR Momentum Award. Dr. Arlotta is the Golub Family Professor of the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and an Institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She will present her research during the ISSCR 2025 Annual Meeting in Hong Kong taking place 11-14 June 2025.
“Dr. Arlotta’s groundbreaking work has redefined our understanding of brain development and neurological diseases,” said Douglas Melton, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Harvard University, USA, and Melissa Little, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine renew, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, who jointly led the nomination. “Through her pioneering research on stem cell-derived brain organoids, she has provided access to the complexities of the developing human brain. Further, her research in modeling brain formation has reshaped the scientific landscape, making her a deserving recipient of the 2025 ISSCR Momentum Award for her extraordinary contributions and visionary approach to human neurobiology.”
“I am deeply honored to receive this year’s Momentum Award, and I dedicate it to the brilliant students and postdocs I have had the privilege of working with over the years,” said Dr. Arlotta. “Their insatiable curiosity about the workings of the brain and their relentless drive to advance new treatments and improve human life continue to inspire me. It is their passion that fills my heart with joy and fuels my ideas. I am also profoundly grateful to my colleagues at ISSCR for their dedication to this field and for this prestigious recognition.”
“I am excited to congratulate Dr. Paola Arlotta and team on receiving the 2025 ISSCR Momentum Award,” ISSCR President Valentina Greco said. “Her transformative vision and innovative work have made such a profound impact. I look forward to following Dr. Arlotta and her lab discoveries as she continues to lead the way in advancing our field.”
Dr. Arlotta’s research program focuses on brain development and disease, and she uses the embryo as well as advanced cellular models of the human brain, organoids, to gain fundamental understanding of both the principles that govern normal brain development and of previously-inaccessible mechanisms of human neurological disease.
Dr. Arlotta received her M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Trieste, Italy, and her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Portsmouth in the UK. She subsequently completed her postdoctoral training in neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. She has won numerous awards including the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, the George Ledlie Prize, the Pradel Award, the Feltrinelli International Prize, and the Gutenberg Award. Her research has been published and widely cited in many noteworthy journals including Nature, Science, and Cell.
The ISSCR Momentum Award is supported by Bluerock Therapeutics.
ISSCR 2025 is the largest meeting in the world gathering leading innovators in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The meeting co-sponsored The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and will take place 11-14 June 2025 in Hong Kong. Submission for late-breaking abstracts will be open until 19 March 2025.
About ISSCR
With nearly 5,000 members from more than 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.
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