Scripps Oceanography Selects Microbiome Researcher Jeffrey I. Gordon as 2024 Nierenberg Prize Recipient

Renowned biologist and professor Jeffrey I. Gordon will be recognized as the recipient of the 2024 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest. He is currently the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University. The Nierenberg Prize is awarded annually by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego for outstanding contributions to science in the public interest. 

Often referred to as the “father of microbiome research,” Gordon leads transformative research that has furthered the understanding of human health and how it is shaped by the gut microbiome, or the collection of microbes that reside in the human gut. The gut, also known as the gastrointestinal tract, is responsible for digesting food, absorbing nutrients, and eliminating waste.   

The public is invited to attend the award ceremony and a presentation from Gordon in a free event on Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. at the Great Hall on the UC San Diego campus.   

Gordon’s presentation, “Developing microbiome-directed therapeutics for treating childhood undernutrition,” will discuss how he and other researchers are testing the hypothesis that childhood undernutrition is causally related to perturbations in the normal development of the gut microbiome. Childhood undernutrition is a devastating global health problem with long-term effects including stunted growth, neurodevelopmental abnormalities, plus metabolic and immune dysfunction, which remain resistant to current therapeutic interventions.

He will present the journey to preclinical proof-of-concept, and the path forward to clinical proof-of-concept to emphasize the opportunities, as well as the experimental, analytic and other challenges that are encountered when developing microbiota-directed therapeutics, or treatments that modify the microbiome to help treat diseases.

“I accept this wonderful prize with the deepest sense of gratitude on behalf of the wonderful group of students and postdoctoral fellows, staff scientists and colleagues who I have been so fortunate to have worked with and learn from over the years,” Gordon said. “Being able to see ourselves as a splendid collection of interacting human and microbial cellular and genetic parts teaches us that we don’t not travel through life unaccompanied — that there is a profound microbial dimension to our biology and health status.” 

The Nierenberg Prize was created through a generous gift from the Nierenberg family to honor William A. Nierenberg (1919-2000), a renowned national science leader who served as Scripps Oceanography Director from 1965 to 1986. He was a leading expert in several fields of underwater research and was known for his work in low-energy nuclear physics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors for professional research and public service. 

The Nierenberg Prize includes a bronze medal and $25,000. Previous awardees include Nobel Prize recipients such as geneticist Svante Pääbo and biochemists Jennifer Doudna and Katalin Karikó; former NASA astronaut and administrator Charles Bolden; filmmaker Sir David Attenborough; and primatologist Dame Jane Goodall, among other luminaries.

Gordon earned his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and his medical degree from the University of Chicago, followed by postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health. 

In following cohorts of children born in low- and middle-income countries, Gordon has discovered that infants and children with moderate and severe malnutrition have impaired gut microbiota development that is not repaired with current nutritional interventions.

Alongside his students and other colleagues, Gordon has been focused on addressing the global health challenges of childhood undernutrition through a new understanding of the interactions between diets and the gut microbiome and new ways of promoting healthy development of the gut community during the first several years of postnatal life. This research includes a long-standing collaboration with Tahmeed Ahmed, executive director at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. 

Gordon’s group has used interdisciplinary approaches for defining mechanisms that underlie the assembly, expressed functions and host effects of human gut microbial communities. Their collaborative studies involve transplanting microbiota from the cohorts of children and their healthy counterparts into germ-free mice. This approach has allowed Gordon to identify therapeutic targets in order to deliberately alter microbiome properties under conditions where postnatal microbial community assembly has been perturbed. 

“Our family is thrilled that Jeffrey Gordon has been awarded this year’s Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest,” said Victoria and Walter Tschinkel, the daughter and son-in-law of William A. Nierenberg. “The puzzles he is solving teach us vital lessons, such as the realization that we, as grand mammals, are far from ruling the world. We are entirely dependent on a myriad of microscopic creatures for whom we are merely a habitat. The balance, diversity, and health of these microbes may influence our well-being just as much as the visible world and our relationships with others. Even new weight-loss drugs, like semaglutide injections, may have to take a back seat to these discoveries!”

Since 1981, Gordon has been a faculty member at Washington University, where he has mentored over 146 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. He started out at the university as a member of the Departments of Medicine and Biological Chemistry and later became the head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology. He now serves as the director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology — the first interdisciplinary, interdepartmental center established under the auspices of the university’s BioMed21 initiative.   

Gordon is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society. Awards include the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Copley Medal from the Royal Society, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine, the Balzan Prize, the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, and the Albany Medical Center Prize. 

Seating is limited and registration is required for this event. Those interested in attending should RSVP in advance.