This week, Prof. Yonatan Stelzer was recognized as one of three 2025 Blavatnik Awards laureates, winning in the Life Sciences category. Prof. Stelzer works in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at Weizmann and was recognized for breakthroughs in modeling human embryonic development and the field of epigenetics.
The Blavatnik Awards, a collaboration between The New York Academy of Sciences, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, recognizes outstanding, innovative scientists in the early stages of their careers in Israel for both their extraordinary achievements and their promise for future scientific discoveries. Each winning scientist was awarded $100,000 for their groundbreaking scientific research.
Prof. Stelzer was honored for devising a new method of tracing the intricate process of mammalian embryonic development and for advancing our understanding of epigenetics, holding significant promise for regenerative and therapeutic medicine.
“I am honored to join the Blavatnik Scholars community,” said Prof. Stelzer, “and deeply grateful to receive recognition for our work aiming to understand one of nature’s most remarkable processes: the formation of an entire mammalian embryo from a single fertilized egg.”
Prof. Stelzer seeks to answer a fundamental question in biology: How does a single fertilized egg develop into a complex and complete mammalian embryo, despite all cells containing the same genetic information?
In his quest to answer this, he uniquely integrates developmental biology, computational biology, epigenetics, and single-cell genomics to model cellular differentiation, the process by which cells become more specialized over time in a coordinated manner.
His groundbreaking work paves the way for significant development in the fields of regenerative medicine, cancer, aging, and in vitro-derived embryo models
You can read more about Prof. Stelzer’s research in The Jerusalem Post and Weizmann Wonder Wander.
Prof. Stelzer received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Whitehead Institute of MIT. Earlier this year, he received the 2025 International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Outstanding Young Investigator Award.
The other two 2025 Blavatnik Awards winners are Benjamin Palmer, PhD (Chemical Sciences) – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev – recognized for pioneering research on how organisms create crystals, inspiring sustainable optical materials and Chaim Garfinkel, PhD (Physical Sciences & Engineering) – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem – recognized for advancing the ability to predict climate change, providing critical insights for climate policy and adaptation strategies.
The Blavatnik Awards recognize outstanding, innovative scientists at the early stages of their careers for their extraordinary achievements as well as their potential for future discoveries. The prizes are awarded to researchers aged 42 and younger for groundbreaking work in Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences & Engineering.
The 2025 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel will be conferred at a ceremony in June at the Peres Center for Peace & Innovation in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
For more details, read the Blavatnik Awards press release here.
