7 April 2025: This is an edited version – full story appears here.
Two leading scientists, Dr Alberto Ascherio of Harvard University and Dr Stephen Hauser of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have been jointly awarded a prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their pioneering research into multiple sclerosis (MS). The pair will share a $3 million prize, nearly three times the amount awarded with a Nobel Prize. Their work has transformed understanding of the causes of MS and how it can be treated.
The Breakthrough Prizes, launched in 2013, celebrate major contributions in physics, mathematics, and life sciences. One of the three annual life sciences awards is dedicated to neurodegenerative diseases. This year, the prize has been awarded for paradigm-shifting discoveries in the field of MS.
Dr Hauser’s research was instrumental in identifying the specific immune cells responsible for the disease. For many years, scientists believed that T cells alone were the culprits behind MS, based on evidence from the 1970s. These cells, which usually attack infected cells and trigger inflammation, were long considered the primary cause of myelin damage. However, T-cell-focused treatments had limited success, suggesting that this explanation was incomplete.
Hauser discovered that another immune cell type — B cells — plays a crucial role in MS. Despite initial resistance from the scientific community, his team was eventually able to trial a B-cell-targeting therapy, which proved effective. This breakthrough led to the development of treatments like ocrelizumab, now widely used in MS care.
Dr Ascherio, meanwhile, focused on a different aspect of MS research: identifying its root cause. He and his team demonstrated a strong link between MS and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus responsible for glandular fever (also known as “mono”). In a landmark 20-year study, they found that people who had been infected with EBV were 32 times more likely to develop MS than those who had not. In fact, none of the study participants who remained EBV-negative developed MS.
Although EBV is extremely common — infecting over 95% of adults — Ascherio likens it to other viruses like polio, which infect many but only seriously affect a small number. EBV is a herpesvirus and can lie dormant in the body before reactivating. Ascherio believes reactivation in the brain could be a key factor in triggering MS.
Efforts are now underway to develop vaccines against EBV, which could potentially prevent MS or stop the virus from reactivating, much like the shingles vaccine does for chickenpox.
| Read more MS articles in ACNR |
