Michel Sadelain Awarded Tang Prize

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to congratulate Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, the Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the director of the Columbia Institute for Cell Engineering and Therapy (CICET), on receiving the 2026 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science at a ceremony earlier today in Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Sadelain was selected as a laureate for his foundational role in the discovery and development of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies, which have revolutionized the treatment of blood cancers and solid tumors.

Since 2012, Tang Prize laureates have been selected for their substantive contributions across four categories—Biopharmaceutical Science, Sustainable Development, Sinology, and Rule of Law—and their far-reaching impacts on the world. Dr. Sadelain shares the prize with two other scientists who pioneered the groundbreaking treatment that uses a patient’s own cells (including genetically modified CAR-T cells) to combat cancer, Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, and Carl H. June, MD, of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Sadelain and colleagues at CICET are working to create cellular therapies for solid tumors, autoimmune diseases, and other diseases in which the immune system plays a role. Cell engineering and cell therapy represent a new frontier in medicine, with enormous potential to alleviate or cure conditions that were once considered untreatable. Over 30,000 patients have been treated with CAR-T therapy since the first commercial product was approved for the treatment of blood cancers in 2017, and many patients have experienced a remission of their cancer.

With Dr. Sadelain’s award, Columbia University scholars have been named laureates in each of the Tang Prize’s four categories; the only other institution to have achieved this distinction is Harvard University. At Columbia, James Hansen, PhD, director of the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions in the Earth Institute, was awarded the Sustainable Development Prize in 2018; Jeffrey D. Sachs, PhD, University Professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Earth Institute, was awarded the Sustainable Development Prize in 2022; William Theodore de Bary, PhD, founder of the Heyman Center for the Humanities and provost emeritus, who passed away in 2017, was awarded the Sinology Prize in 2016; and Joseph Raz, DPhil, Thomas M. Macioce Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, who passed away in 2022, was awarded the Rule of Law Prize in 2018.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Sadelain and celebrating all of Columbia’s laureates on this distinguished achievement.

Sincerely,

James McKiernan, MD
Interim Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Interim Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences

Angela V. Olinto, PhD
Provost and Rutherfurd Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics