Sanger scientist awarded Kovalenko Medal by National Academy of Sciences
Wellcome Sanger Institute Senior Group Leader, and former Institute Director, Professor Sir Mike Stratton has been awarded the 2026 Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal by the Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
Announced today (22 January), the award recognises Mike’s revolutionary work in cancer genomics, which has transformed how we understand, diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.
Mike established the Cancer Genome Project, using the newly sequenced human genome as a template on which to systematically sequence cancer genomes. Through genome-wide sequencing studies, Mike has identified numerous inherited and somatically mutated genes that drive a wide range of human cancers. His discoveries include mutations in the BRAF gene, which enabled the development of targeted therapies for melanoma, as well as uncovering the mutational signatures of the environmental exposures and endogenous mutational processes underlying cancer development. He led the discovery of the breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2, and sequenced the first complete cancer genome.
Mike’s work has had a profound and lasting impact on both cancer research and patient care. He continues to provide critical insights into the process of human carcinogenesis. His ongoing research explores the somatic mutation patterns of normal cell genomes across tissues of the human body. He analyses mutations in both normal cell and cancer genomes from populations worldwide to uncover the existence of currently uncharacterised population exposures that may contribute to cancer risk.
The Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal is awarded every two years for outstanding research in the medical sciences. The medal carries with it a $25,000 award, and an additional $50,000 for research. The Kovalenko Fund, gifted by Michael S. Kovalenko in 1949 to the National Academy of Science in memory of his wife, Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko, was specifically designed to recognise the achievements made to the medical sciences and, over the past 67 years, has honoured many outstanding contributors.
The Kovalenko Medal will be presented to Mike at an awards ceremony on 26 April, during the Academy’s annual meeting.
“I feel extremely privileged and humbled to be awarded the 2026 Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal, and would like to convey my deep appreciation to the National Academy of Sciences. We have made great strides in cancer research in recent years, but there is much more to discover. With advances in genome sequencing technologies we can now explore patterns of somatic mutations in normal tissues, look back at the evolution of cells in our bodies over a lifetime and, as a result, obtain new insights into the causes of cancer, including both the endogenous mutational processes operating and the exogenous environmental and lifestyle exposures that increase cancer risk.”
Professor Sir Mike Stratton, Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute
