A longtime University of Iowa professor’s life-changing cystic fibrosis research was honored with one of biomedicine’s most prestigious awards — an accolade so distinguished it’s often referred to as the “American Nobel.”

Dr. Michael J. Welsh, along with two other scientists, won the 2025 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their work on therapies that have lengthened and bettered the lives of patients with cystic fibrosis.

A genetic disorder that causes thick mucus to inhibit organ functions, cystic fibrosis most often effects the lungs where chronic infections lead to progressive destruction.

When Welsh started his medical career nearly 50 years ago, cystic fibrosis was a terminal disease, with patients rarely seeing their 30th birthday. Today, when cystic fibrosis pati

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