STRASBOURG, France, 13 July 2026 — The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) is pleased to award the 2027 HFSP Nakasone Award to V. Narry Kim of the Republic of Korea for her breakthrough discovery of noncanonical RNA tailing pathways that established new regulatory layers of gene expression and laid the molecular foundation for durable mRNA therapeutics and vaccines.
By revealing how RNA tail composition controls stability and translation, Kim established a new regulatory mechanism of gene expression and laid the molecular foundation for durable mRNA therapeutics and vaccines. She demonstrated that mRNA tails harbour chemical diversity that encodes regulatory information, enabling gene regulation across cellular and viral contexts. The realization that viruses hijack the tail modification machinery opened new paths for antiviral intervention.
“HFSPO is thrilled to honor Dr. Narry Kim as her discovery has established novel pathways of gene regulation that provided new principles for developing molecular tools for RNA based medicine“, said HFSPO Secretary-General Pavel Kabat. “This is the nature of the Nakasone Award: it is given to those pioneers who literally advance the frontiers of a whole discipline.”
The HFSP Nakasone Award was established in 2010 to honor scientists who have made key breakthroughs in fields at the forefront of the life sciences. It recognizes the vision of Japan’s former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who envisioned and created the International Human Frontier Science Program beginning with a charter by the global leaders of the G7 nations in 1987.
The 2027 HFSP Nakasone Award has been a high point since the creation of this award more than 15 years ago. “The award recognizes fundamental breakthrough research that affects the lives of millions and is the first Nakasone Award to a scientist from Asia. Narry Kim represents the outstanding research capacity of the Republic of Korea” commented Guntram Bauer, HFSPO’s Chief Scientific Officer.
Having finished her university education at Seoul National University, V. Narry Kim moved to the University of Oxford where she received her Ph.D. (1998) in Biochemistry with research on retroviral gene transfer. She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, investigating mRNA surveillance pathways, before joining Seoul National University in 2001 to establish her independent laboratory. She is currently Director of the IBS Center for RNA Research and a Distinguished Professor at Seoul National University. For her seminal contributions, she received the L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award, the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, the Asan Award in Medicine, the Chen Award, and numerous national distinctions. In 2018, Nature named her one of the ten “Science Stars of East Asia.”
For full details on Narry Kim’s discoveries, standing, and citations, please see HFSP full description of the
2027 Nakasone Award.