Leslie Gehry Prize for Innovation in Science

Created as a collaboration between HDF and HDF Founding Director and renowned architect Frank Gehry and his family to honor his late daughter Leslie’s memory. This prize recognizes scientists who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of Huntington’s disease research. Leslie celebrated life with joy and this prize reflects Leslie’s many talents and gifts – originality, spontaneity, precision, and rigor – all critical attributes in a scientist.

This prize is awarded by the Leslie Gehry Prize Committee, comprised of previous prize recipients and some members of the HDF Scientific Advisory Board.

2024 Recipient

Dr. James F. Gusella

Dr. James F. Gusella (Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) receives the fourteenth Leslie Gehry Prize for Innovation in Science.

Few people have changed the research landscape of a disease field as much as Dr. Gusella. His work has made possible some of the most critical findings in Huntington’s disease research – the discovery of the gene that causes HD, the development of a test for the gene, the creation of countless animal models, and the discovery of genes that modify age of disease onset. His accomplishments within the field are so deep and meaningful that one would be hard pressed to find a single peer-reviewed scientific paper on HD that doesn’t cite his work.

As a young postdoc in 1983 in the lab of the first Gehry Prize recipient, Dr. David Housman, Dr. Gusella was a key member of the team that mapped the genetic marker for HD to chromosome 4. This discovery directly led to the development of a genetic test for the disease and then, a decade later, to the identification of the gene that causes HD. Having the gene in hand enabled the creation of animal models of HD that have been used to study the molecular complexities of the disorder. Dr. Gusella went on to build his career in HD research, working to understand the cause behind and mysteries of Huntington’s.

He is a senior member of the Genetic Modifiers of Huntington’s Disease (GeM-HD) Consortium. In 2015, led by Dr. Gusella, GeM-HD published a landmark paper with only this moniker, something rare in an industry where author lists are long and the order influences decisions for promotions and tenure (similar to authorship of the paper when the HD gene was identified by “The Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Group”). Collecting samples from over 4,000 individuals from families affected by HD, the consortium detailed some of the most notable findings in HD history. Their work identified “modifiers” – genes that modify how early or late someone begins to show symptoms. Modifiers identified in this paper are now targets in upcoming clinical trials.

The GeM-HD Consortium has continued its efforts to define and understand HD. This past summer they published a preprint ahead of peer-review to detail findings of modifiers that are specific for different cell types of the brain. These efforts could help understand how the pathogenic process affects different cell types of the brain in specific ways.