“GLP-1 has forever changed the treatment of diabetes”

Recognized with the 17th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine, biochemist Svetlana Mojsov explains how she identified the active sequence of GLP-1 and proved its role as an incretin, paving the way for a new generation of treatments for diabetes and obesity. She highlights milestones such as long-acting GLP-1 analogues—from Byetta to semaglutide—and recent polyagonist drugs achieving weight loss of over 20%, while underlining the potential of this pathway to address metabolic, cardiovascular, and even neurological diseases.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biology and Biomedicine category has gone in its seventeenth edition to Professors Daniel Joshua Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst and Svetlana Mojsov, “for their discovery and characterisation of the biologically active form of the hormone glucacon-like peptide (GLP-1)”