Sara Wickström awarded the Körber Prize 2026

Finnish physician and cell biologist Sara Wickström has been awarded the €1 million Körber European Science Prize for discovering how cells sense the physical world around them. Her research showed that cells can “feel” forces such as pressure and stretching and relay these signals all the way to their DNA. In doing so, physical forces can switch genes on or off, helping determine how cells develop and how tissues heal after injury. The discovery opened a new field of research and could eventually lead to new ways of treating cancer, organ fibrosis and other age-related diseases.