Congratulations to the winners of the 2016 Lasker Essay Contest! This year we asked participants to consider which fundamental discoveries in basic medical research have not been clinically explored and translated into better human health.
The winners received monetary prizes to be used towards educational expenses. The first-place prize was $10,000. Second- and third-place prizes were $5000 and $2500, respectively. The honorees have been invited to New York to meet the 2016 Lasker Award winners during the Awards Ceremony on September 23.
The winning essays are published on our website in their original form, without editorial review.
First Place
David Ottenheimer, Johns Hopkins University

Essay: Modern neuroscience has the tools to treat psychiatric illness
Second Place
Therese Woodring (Korndorf), University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria

Therese (Tess) Korndorf is a second-year medical student at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. She grew up in the Midwest and earned her BA in Biology and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College. Before beginning her clinical rotations, Tess will take a year off to participate in the 2016-2017 Medical Research Scholars Program at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Essay: Hacking the bacterial social network: quorum sensing and the future of microbial management
Third Place
Unikora Yang, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Essay: The cutting edge of DNA editing: translating CRISPR to improve human health