Bangladesh's Senjuti Saha wins 2026 Sabin Award for vaccine research

A Bangladeshi scientist is among three researchers from around the world recognised with the 2026 Sabin Awards for advancing vaccine science, from pandemic response to the prevention of childhood diseases.

Dr Senjuti Saha will receive the 2026 Rising Star Award for using genomics to help guide one of the world’s largest typhoid vaccine rollouts, which has already protected millions of children, according to a media release issued by the Sabin Vaccine Institute on March 23.

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The other two honourees are Professors Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who will jointly receive the Albert B Sabin Gold Medal for their role in developing the COVID-19 vaccine and advancing global access to innovative medicines.

Senjuti Saha, deputy executive director of the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF), has played a central role in generating evidence for Bangladesh’s 2025 typhoid conjugate vaccine campaign, which has reached more than 40 million children.

Her work includes building one of Bangladesh’s leading genomic laboratories, which has sequenced thousands of pathogen genomes to improve outbreak detection and support vaccine development for diseases such as Klebsiella and RSV.

She said the award reflects years of collective work in Bangladesh and demonstrates that strong science can emerge wherever people are committed to solving problems together.

Şahin and Türeci, who are also life partners, are being honoured for transforming oncology-based research into a rapid COVID-19 vaccine response that helped protect billions of lives during the pandemic.

They continue to develop vaccine candidates for diseases including tuberculosis, HIV and malaria, while also supporting efforts to build a sustainable vaccine ecosystem in Africa, for Africa.

In a joint statement, they said they were “deeply honoured” by the recognition, adding that scientific breakthroughs must ultimately reach the people who need them most.

The honourees will be formally recognised on May 12, 2026, at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, DC. The Sabin Awards ceremony will be livestreamed.

The Albert B Sabin Gold Medal and Rising Star Award have been presented since 1993 and 2020 respectively, in honour of Dr Sabin’s legacy of promoting universal vaccine access.