Gene editing pioneer David Liu received the Breakthrough Prize from the hands of Jodie Foster and Lily Collins — but the biggest applause went to young CAR-T patient Alyssa Tapley.

The movie stars in the audience in Santa Monica on April 12 were easy to spot: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Sean Penn, and others. But it’s rare for a scientist to become a celebrity beyond academic circles. This role reversal happens just one day a year, when the Breakthrough Prize is celebrated in California. Richer than the Nobel (the prizes are worth three times as much) and steeped in glamour, the event honors the stars of science with the help of Hollywood and technofinance.

The inventors of the standard CRISPR model, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, won the Life Sciences prize in 2015. In 2025, it was the turn of David Liu, the scientist behind CRISPR’s advanced versions — known as base and prime editing.

Dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” the Breakthrough Prize is a fascinating experiment in the selection of excellence (with looser rules than Stockholm) and the disciplines it highlights (awarding physics, mathematics, and life sciences instead of the traditional physics-chemistry-medicine triad). Its communication style couldn’t be more different either: science is presented in Broadway-style songs, narrated like an adventure, and condensed into bite-sized moments fit for social media.

Explaining gene editing, in particular, was two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster, alongside the star of Emily in Paris, Lily Collins: “When we actors read a script we often think about how to bring the character to life how to add truth and depth to the person on the page but their story and their fate are already sealed. They’re already written right there, in permanent ink. And yet, isn’t that partly true for all of us? like before we’re born, quite a bit about us is already written in our genes, how we look, what we like, when we’ll start turning into our moms.” The banter lightened the mood, and the metaphor continued: just like screenplays, our DNA contains typos, et cetera.

Before Liu took the stage, it was Alyssa Tapley — the first patient treated with CAR-T cells engineered using base editing — who moved the audience with her emotional, plainspoken account of battling incurable leukemia. “I was 13 when I was told that I was going to die, after I tried all the known treatments including multiple rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. I remember that day like yesterday, looking into my consultant’s eyes and bleeding: please don’t give up on me […] A few weeks later, they told me that there was a trial I could possibly participate in: a new gene editing treatment. By taking part, I knew that even if it didn’t help me, it would help others. It was my chance to make a difference. After many tests and four grueling months in hospital, I was told that I was in remission and I would go through the whole thing a hundred times over to be where I am today and to provide hope for others. Now, 2 and 1/2 years later, I’m 16, preparing for my exams, spending time with my family, arguing with my brother, and doing all the things I thought that I would never be able to do. But most importantly, I have a future.” The celebrity crowd rose in applause: a testament to the power of lived experience. The courage of the vulnerable inspires awe, and the narrative arc — from initial despair to triumphant resolution — is the same in notable scientific advancements and good movie stories.

Finally, it was Liu’s moment. He thanked patients and their families, as well as his brilliant students and collaborators. The closing of his short speech is inspirational but also political: “Breakthroughs with impact begin with compassion. At a time when science faces unprecedented jeopardy in this country, I hope we all remember that science guided by empathy transforms lives. Thank you.”