Spotlight
The Jerusalem Post examines the Blavatnik Family Foundation’s longstanding partnership with Tel Aviv University and its support for scientific discovery, technological innovation, and filmmaking. The partnership expanded through the Blavatnik…
Yale School of Medicine is launching a new research initiative to deepen understanding of inflammation in health and disease, supported by a $10 million grant from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The initiative will be directed by Ruslan Medzhitov, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology, who was an inaugural laureate of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in 2007. He will lead the work alongside Yale colleagues Noah Palm, Liza Konnikova, and Akiko Iwasaki. Bringing together researchers across disciplines, the initiative will examine how infection, environmental factors, and the microbiome influence inflammation, seeking to uncover biological principles that connect seemingly unrelated conditions. The grant will also establish the Blavatnik Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellows program, supporting the next generation of inflammation researchers. This commitment builds on more than a decade of Foundation support for biomedical research at Yale. “Yale School of Medicine’s exceptional scientists are uniquely positioned to break new ground in inflammation science,” said Len Blavatnik.
A Financial Times review of Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation at London’s Science Museum highlights how scientific knowledge helped shape the United States. Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the exhibition marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. Through maps, paintings, scientific instruments, and a rare 1776 printing of the Declaration, it brings together the experiences of colonists, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved people. The review examines how surveying enabled territorial expansion and displacement, while highlighting the agricultural and medicinal knowledge that helped communities sustain themselves and resist oppression. It also traces how Benjamin Franklin’s electrical research and the study of North America’s natural history helped establish the young nation’s international standing. The exhibition is free to visit and runs through April 25, 2027.
Technology Networks features Samuel H. Sternberg, a Columbia University scientist and 2026 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists Finalist, whose research is expanding the potential of CRISPR. His work examines naturally occurring systems that use RNA to guide the insertion of large DNA sequences at precise locations. These systems could offer an alternative to conventional CRISPR approaches that cut DNA and rely on the cell’s repair mechanisms. Sternberg discusses the challenges of adapting these systems for reliable use in more complex cells, highlighting how fundamental research into microbial biology can inform new tools for genome engineering and biotechnology.
Providing many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and universities with support, and funding to discover breakthroughs that solve humankind's greatest challenges.
The Foundation contributes to renowned institutions that showcase the breadth of arts and culture, including performance, exhibition and education.
The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia.
