The dysregulation of the tau protein has been recognized as a component of several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) 

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Rainwater Charitable Foundation, one of the largest independent funders of neurodegenerative research that enables field-advancing programs, resources and breakthrough solutions for primary tauopathies, today announced Virginia Man-Yee Lee, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, will be awarded the 2024 Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Disease Research Prize of $400,000, and Cristian Lasagna-Reeves, Ph.D., M.S., Indiana University School of Medicine will be awarded the Rainwater Prize for Innovative Early-Career Scientist of $200,000. The prizes will be presented during the Tau2024 Global Conference on March 25-26, 2024, in Washington, D.C. 

Dr. Lee will receive this honor for her career spanning multiple decades of discoveries that helped shape awareness and understanding of tau, a protein whose dysregulation is involved in multiple neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). Dr. Lasagna-Reeves is being awarded his prize for his exceptional early achievements in neurodegenerative disease research, including findings suggesting that tau oligomers and not tau neurofibrillary tangles are responsible for neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. 

The Rainwater Prize Program, now in its fifth year, aims to highlight and support scientific progress toward addressing critical gaps for neurodegenerative diseases associated with the accumulation of the tau protein in the brain. It also seeks to further scientific discovery by attracting and retaining promising researchers in the field and recognizes and awards scientific achievements that may help lead to innovative, effective treatments for primary tauopathies.  

Rainwater Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Disease Research: Dr. Virginia Man-Yee Lee, the John H. Ware 3rd Professor in Alzheimer’s Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn,  Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, and Co-Director of the Marian S. Ware Center for Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Program

Throughout her career, Dr. Lee has made several key discoveries which helped advance the neurodegenerative and tauopathy field. Notably, Dr. Lee was one of the first to identify the roles of tau, alpha-synuclein and TAR DNA-binding proteins (TDP-43) in neurodegenerative disorders such as frontotemporal dementia and ALS. Her foundational work helped set forth the opportunity to take an alternative approach to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Her recent work is dedicated to co-pathologies associated with primary tauopathies. 

“I’m deeply honored to be recognized in this way and am grateful to use this research funding to further advance neurodegenerative research,” said Dr. Lee. “The award will be incredibly helpful in supporting my team’s research into the rare neurodegenerative disease known as PSP, which affects movement, balance and eye function, may shorten a patient’s lifespan, and for which no treatments are currently available.”  

Rainwater Prize for Innovative Early-Career Scientist: Dr. Cristian Lasagna-Reeves, Associate Professor at Indiana University School of Medicine and Investigator at Stark Neuroscience Research Institute 

Dr. Lasagna-Reeves’ paper in Nature Neuroscience was called the “most impactful study published in Alzheimer’s research over the preceding two years” at the 2023 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. His laboratory identified Bassoon (BSN), a presynaptic scaffolding protein, to exacerbate tau seeding from a mouse model of tauopathy and from Alzheimer’s disease and PSP postmortem samples. They demonstrated that downregulating BSN resulted in decreased tau spreading and overall disease pathology, leading to the possibility of inhibiting tau-seed interactions as a new therapeutic approach for tauopathies. Currently, Dr. Lasagna-Reeves’ lab focuses on understanding the role of tau in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.  

“I am honored to receive this award; it is one of the most important achievements of my career,” said Dr. Lasagna-Reeves. “I feel very excited because my career has focused on the study of neurodegenerative diseases with a special emphasis in tauopathies. This recognition of the years of hard work has been a great motivator for both myself and the people in my lab.” 

“We are pleased to recognize this year’s winners of the Rainwater Prizes and their important work which helps uphold Richard E. Rainwater’s legacy of advancing the understanding of tauopathies,” said Jeremy Smith, President of The Rainwater Charitable Foundation. “The Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Disease Research Prize being awarded to the world-renowned Dr. Lee highlights her impressive, long-standing dedication to the biology of tau and a focus in researching neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Lasagna-Reeves winning this year’s Early-Career Prize recognizes the scientific discoveries that could lead to a potential new therapeutic approach for tauopathies. We’re proud to support their research and provide resources that may contribute to potential future breakthroughs in our understanding of tau.” 

For more information on this year’s prize winners, please visit www.rainwaterprize.org. 

About The Rainwater Charitable Foundation’s Medical Research 
The Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF) was created in the early 1990s by renowned private equity investor and philanthropist Richard E. Rainwater. When Richard was diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease and primary tauopathy called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), the RCF expanded its mission to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and treatments for tau-related neurodegenerative disorders. The RCF Medical Research Team support this focus by managing the Tau Consortium, the Rainwater Prize Program and the Tauopathy Challenge Workshop. With over $140 million invested in medical research to date, the RCF has helped to advance eight treatments into human trials. Currently RCF supports a range of programs, including a focus in family economic security, medical research and other worthy causes. For more information, please visit rainwatercharitablefoundation.org.