Luger wins Vilcek Prize

Karolin Luger received the 2026 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science from the Vilcek Foundation. The $100,000 award honors an immigrant scientist in the U.S. whose research has had a significant impact and who demonstrates exceptional leadership in advancing biomedical science. The Vilcek Foundation recognized Luger for capturing a high-resolution cryogenic electron microscopy image of chromatin, a breakthrough that has contributed to  development for diseases such as cancer.

Karolin Luger

Her lab studies chromatin assembly using microscopy and X-ray crystallography to explore its evolutionary origins and investigate its biophysics, genomics and genetics. In 1997, Luger, then a postdoctoral researcher in Timothy Richmond’s lab at the ETH Zürich, solved the structure of chromatin, publishing work that has been cited thousands of times and is now included in standard biology textbooks. Her career reflects diversity through her inclusive lab, use of multiple research approaches and international collaborations, including work with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Genomics and Structural Information Laboratory in Marseille, where she found that histones are essential for viral fitness.

Luger, an immigrant from Austria, also received the World Laureates Association Prize in 2023 and has been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005.

“Diversity is key because everything becomes clearer and more three-dimensional when illuminated from all sides,” Luger, professor and chair of biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, said.