Gene therapy pioneer David Liu among 2026 Franklin Institute honorees
Liu’s precision gene editing invention was the foundation for Baby KJ’s therapy. He is among several scientists being honored as part of the science museum’s annual awards program.
A gene therapy pioneer whose invention was pivotal to a first-of-its-kind personalized gene-editing treatment for a Philadelphia-area infant is among the winners of this year’s Franklin Institute awards.
David Liu, a professor at Harvard University, won the $250,000 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science for developing more precise gene editing tools. His techniques have been used to save several lives, including baby KJ Muldoon’s last year at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and treat more than 100 patients across nearly two dozen trials.
The Franklin Institute, a Philadelphia-based science museum and education center, on Thursday was honoring Liu alongside several others for accomplishments in science, business, and engineering.
The prizes, now in their 202nd year, come with cash awards ranging from $10,000 to $250,000.
Liu’s recognition comes at a time when gene therapy is increasingly in the spotlight. Earlier this month, a 2026 Breakthrough Prize went to a Philadelphia team for developing the first FDA-approved gene therapy for an inherited disease.
» READ MORE: Philly scientists win 2026 Breakthrough Prize for developing gene therapy for blindness
A team of doctors led by the University of Pennsylvania’s Kiran Musunuru and CHOP’s Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas created a custom drug to correct the genetic mutation driving Baby KJ’s rare disease, allowing his liver to function better. One of Liu’s gene-editing inventions, called base editing, enabled the advance.
This technique has been recognized as a breakthrough in the field for allowing greater precision of gene edits, akin to being able to correct a single-letter typo in a book.
“I’m incredibly grateful to have received this award on behalf of an enormous team of students, postdocs, collaborators, and also clinicians in our community like [Ahrens-Nicklas] and [Musunuru], who have deployed these tools to wonderful effect in patients like Baby KJ,” Liu said in an interview.
Other winners included David M. Rubenstein (of the Carlyle Group in Washington) for business leadership; Josh Alman (Columbia University) for achievements as an early investigator; Geoffrey W. Coates (Cornell University) for chemistry; Dedre Gentner (Northwestern University) for computer and cognitive science; Pedro J.J. Alvarez (Rice University) for civil engineering; Karen C. Seto (Yale University) for earth and environmental science; and Wendy Laurel Freedman (University of Chicago) for physics.