2023 Nature's 10
2023 Time100 Health
2024 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize
2024 Time 100 Most Influential People
2024 Princess of Asturias Awards
2024 Tang Prize - Biopharmaceutical Science
Svetlana Mojsov is a Macedonian American, ex- Yugoslavian-born chemist who is a research associate professor at Rockefeller University. Her research considers peptide synthesis. She discovered the glucagon-like peptide-1 and uncovered its role in glucose metabolism and the secretion of insulin. Her breakthroughs were transformed by Novo Nordisk into therapeutic agents against diabetes and obesity.
In the 1980s, Mojsov moved to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was made head of a peptide synthesis facility. She arrived at MGH shortly after Joel Habener had cloned proglucagon by studying anglerfish found in Boston Harbor. Mojsov worked on the identification of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone generated by the gut that triggers the release of insulin. The amino acid sequence of GLP-1 was similar to a gastric inhibitory peptide, an incretin. To try to identify whether a specific fragment of GLP-1 was an incretin, Mojsov created an incretin-antibody and developed ways to track its presence. Specifically, Mojsov identified that a stretch of 31 amino acids in the GLP-1 was an incretin.[2][3] Together with Gordon Weir at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and Habener, Mojsov showed that small quantities of lab-synthesized GLP-1 could trigger insulin.[4][5]
In the 1990s, Mojsov returned to New York City, where she went back to Rockefeller University and the laboratory of Ralph M. Steinman (2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine). In 1992, the group at Massachusetts General Hospital using GLP-1 synthesized by Mojsov tested the GLP-1 in humans.[6] Drugs that emulate the action of GLP1 have been developed into treatments for obesity and diabetes by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.[7] Eventually, the GLP-1 derivatives Mojsov synthesized were patented as peptides able to prompt the release of insulin, but with Habener as the sole-creator. Mojsov fought to have her name included in patents, with MGH eventually agreeing to amend four patents to include her name and she received her one-third of drug royalties for one year.[8] She has continued to speak up for credit after her collaborators received various awards as new versions of GLP-1 have been approved and grown popular.[8][9]
Prizes and awards
2023 VinFuture, Innovators With Outstanding Achievements In Emerging Fields - Jens Juul Holst, Joel Francis Habener, Daniel Joshua Drucker and Svetlana Mojsov[10]
2023 Nature 10 most influential people who shaped science[11]
2024 Pearl Meister GreengardPrize by the Rockefeller University[12][13]
2024 Time 100 Most Influential People, Pioneers section[14]
2024 Princess of Asturias Awards, Technical and Scientific Research - Daniel J. Drucker, Jeffrey M. Friedman, Joel F. Habener, Jens Juul Holst and Svetlana Mojsov[15]
2024 Tang Prize, Biopharmaceutical Science - Joel F. Habener, Svetlana Mojsov and Jens Juul Holst[16]
2025 Warren Triennial Prize - Joel Habener, Daniel J. Drucker, Jens Holst and Svetlana Mojsov[17]
Selected publications
Mojsov, Svetlana; Merrifield, R. B. (1984-12). "An improved synthesis of crystalline mammalian glucagon". European Journal of Biochemistry. 145 (3): 601–605. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1984.tb08599.x. ISSN 0014-2956.
Nathan, David M; Schreiber, Eric; Fogel, Howard; Mojsov, Svetlana; Habener, Joel F (1992-02-01). "Insulinotropic Action of Glucagonlike Peptide-I-(7–37) in Diabetic and Nondiabetic Subjects". Diabetes Care. 15 (2): 270–276. doi:10.2337/diacare.15.2.270. ISSN 0149-5992