La Jornada: The Princess of Asturias for Scientific Research is awarded to rapid DNA sequencing

Madrid. One of the greatest scientific milestones of recent times is the development of technology and tools for the sequencing of a complete human genome, which previously required months of preparation and was a procedure that cost millions of euros. But a group of chemists, including the British David Klenerman and Shankar Balasubramanian and the Frenchman Pascal Mayer, developed the technology that is most used today and that has allowed us to promote clinical diagnosis and research in biology, biomedicine, forensic medicine and ecology. Hence, the jury of the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research has chosen them as the winners of the 2026 edition. This scientific advance was vital to combat the spread of the covid-19 virus in 2020.

The jury, which included prominent Spanish scientists such as Arturo Álvarez-Buylla Roces, Alberto Aparici Benages, Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras, Mar Capeáns Garrido, Avelino Corma Canós, Elena García Armada and Bernardo Hernández González, among others, explained that their selection was due to the fact that these prominent European chemists had “developed the most used DNA sequencing technologies today.” They also explain that “these methods have promoted clinical diagnosis and research in biology, biomedicine, forensic medicine and ecology. Before the developments of these three researchers, the sequencing of a complete human genome required months and millions of euros. Today it can be done in one day and thousands of times cheaper. These technologies have given rise to a genetic tool for everyday use that has revolutionized personalized medicine.”

After hearing the news, Klenerman stated that this recognition “is a great honor that our work developing next-generation DNA sequencing and the impact it has had has been recognized with the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research 2026. It was truly a team effort and was only possible thanks to all the people who have worked on this technology at Solexa and later at Illumina. Cambridge has a very extensive history associated with DNA, including the discovery of its structure and the invention of the first sequencing method of DNA and I am very grateful to the Princess of Asturias Foundation for recognizing this latest contribution, in addition to feeling very honored.” While Balasubramanian stated that “the science and technology being recognized involves the collective contributions of many brilliant people from the University of Cambridge, Solexa, Illumina and Manteia.”

Covid-19 pandemic

The candidacy was proposed by Philip Felgner, Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research 2021. It seeks to highlight this important scientific milestone, since the sequencing of the human genome, presented in 2000, was the result of a decade and a half of research. Genomes are currently sequenced in just a few hours. Thus, the SARS-CoV2 virus, which caused the Covid-19 pandemic, was identified and sequenced extremely quickly, which allowed the vaccines to prevent infection to be ready in less than a year, and the response to the appearance of new variants to be equally immediate.

Cheap and effective

The candidacy proposal explains that “this advance was made possible by next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, developed at the end of the last century by Balasubramanian, Klenerman and Mayer. Through the biotechnology company they named Solexa (currently Illumina), the first two created a fast, cheap and effective commercial genome sequencing method, one of whose key components was the DNA surface amplification method developed by Pascal Mayer. Before the developments by these three researchers, the sequencing of a complete human genome could take many months and cost millions of dollars. Today it can be done in one day and for less than a thousand dollars. This technology is based on massive parallel sequencing of DNA, which allows billions of genes to be read at a time: it chops up the genome into small fragments. clusters of DNA, creates thousands of copies of them and groups them into a kind of islands.”

In addition, the recent findings of Balasubramanian were highlighted, who has made relevant contributions in the field of chemistry, structure and function of nucleic acids and in epigenetics. Meanwhile, Klenerman has made important contributions in microscopy that allows high-resolution three-dimensional images of living cells and protein folding to be obtained, and in the study of the accumulations of protein plaques characteristic of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

In this edition, a total of 56 candidates from 24 nationalities competed for the Scientific and Technical Research award. This has been the third of the eight awards that are granted; Previously, the Princess of Asturias Award for Arts was awarded to the American writer and singer Patti Smith and the Communication and Humanities Award was awarded to the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli.