The Breakthrough Prize – founded in 2013 – is sponsored by global entrepreneurs and philanthropists Sergey Brin (Google), Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Pony Ma (Tencent), Yuri Milner (DST Global) and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki (23andMe).
The Life Sciences category recognizes 'transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life.' Winners are chosen by selection committees composed of past laureates, and the recipients are awarded $3 million, making the Breakthrough Prize the richest in international science.
The winner’s citation honours Kim Nasmyth for 'elucidating the sophisticated mechanism that mediates the perilous separation of duplicated chromosomes during cell division and thereby prevents genetic diseases such as cancer.'