Research!America Advocacy Awards to Recognize Nation鈥檚 Outstanding Leaders for Medical and Health Research
Research!America is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Advocacy Awards. Given annually since 1996, the Advocacy Awards recognize individuals and organizations whose leadership efforts have advanced the nation鈥檚 commitment to medical and health research.
Research!America will formally present the awards during an event at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 2025.
鈥淥ur honorees collectively represent a stellar group of remarkable leaders who 鈥� through their innovation, dedication, resilience, and creativity 鈥� have advanced our nation鈥檚 commitment to research with the overriding goal of healthier lives for all Americans,鈥� said Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley. 鈥淚n a variety of impactful ways, our honorees have raised awareness and support for medical and health research in our country and around the world. We know they will inspire others to become ever more impactful advocates.鈥�
Distinguished awardees announced today:
Barney S. Graham, MD, PhD and are recipients of Building the Foundation Award. This award recognizes one or more individuals whose basic research discoveries have played a pivotal role in advancing public health. Dr. Graham and Dr. Corbett-Helaire鈥檚 years of research on the fundamental biology of coronaviruses led to development of COVID-19 vaccines. They were among the researchers named Heroes of the Year by Time Magazine in 2021.
For decades, Dr. Graham researched respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); his work on RSV led to recent FDA-approved vaccines and spearheaded understanding on how to design effective vaccines for other viruses, such as coronaviruses. Dr. Corbett-Helaire joined his NIH laboratory in 2014 to co-lead a team tasked with understanding immune responses to coronaviruses. Her work highlighted how to use coronavirus spike proteins to generate high level immune responses. On the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, together they co-designed and developed a leading COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna鈥檚 "SpikeVax," which unprecedentedly entered clinical trial in only 66 days from viral sequence release. Aside from SpikeVax, their design is included in many vaccines used globally, including Pfizer's, Novavax's, and even nasal COVID-19 vaccines currently in development. To tackle the COVID-19 virus therapeutically, they also isolated therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, which, upon development by Eli Lilly, were used globally against many variants.
Graham is currently Director of the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute and Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Immunology, Morehouse
School of Medicine. Corbett-Helaire is currently Assistant Professor of Immunology
and Infectious Diseases at and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar.