Dogs and Mice Led Two Scientists to a Key Discovery in Sleep and Wakefulness

Emmanuel Mignot and Masashi Yanagisawa have won the 2026 Lasker Award for uncovering the role of orexin in regulating sleep and wakefulness and linking it to narcolepsy.

Their work, involving dogs and mice, helped reveal a biological pathway central to staying awake. It also offered a clearer understanding of a disorder that disrupts the boundary between sleep and wakefulness.

The discovery connected orexin to narcolepsy, establishing a link between the regulation of wakefulness and the condition. That connection became a foundation for research into treatments targeting the same pathway.

The findings have since contributed to the development of therapies aimed at the orexin system, illustrating how research in animals can guide advances in human medicine.

The Lasker recognition highlights both the discovery’s importance to sleep science and its contribution to new approaches to treatment.