The authors of 5 scientific articles for kids are recipients of the 2025 Canada Gairdner Awards.

Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM), the award-winning science engagement platform for kids, has partnered again with the Gairdner Foundation, to publish a new volume of articles featuring this year’s top researchers in biomedical and human health sciences.

Since 1957, the Gairdner Foundation has celebrated international scientific excellent in research which advances human health, by awarding the annual Canada Gairdner Awards. To date, 434 awards have been bestowed on laureates from over 40 countries, and of these, 102 have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes.

In the new FYM Gairdner Awards Collection, the 2025 laureates share their breakthrough science for a young audience – all peer-reviewed by FYM’s unique community of Young Reviewers aged 8-15, to ensure the articles are clear and fun-to-read for others their age. Through the articles, young readers are enabled to learn about the future of human health, while the young reviewers also learn about the scientific process, empowering tomorrow’s scientists to develop confidence and important critical thinking skills.

The new collection of articles covers the latest health research from fighting cancer to treating childhood malnutrition:

• Epigenetics in Action: Finding and Fighting Cancer in New Ways, by Daniel de Carvalho. Epigenetics is a field which looks at how cells turn genes on or off. Discover how by mimicking a viral infection in cancer cells, our bodies’ defense system can be made to notice the cancer and fight it – and a newly developed epigenetic test to find cancer before symptoms even appear!

• Solving Cystic Fibrosis: From Lab Bench to Bedside, by Paul Negulescu and Michael J. Welsh. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a serious genetic disease that creates thick, sticky mucus in the lungs and digestive system – and old treatments only managed the symptoms. A discovery that problems with a key protein cause CF enabled new developments of powerful therapies to help the faulty protein work correctly. Find out how these are changing what it means to live with CF.

• Notch: A Signaling Protein That Helps Cells Make Big Decisions, by Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, Iva Greenwald and Gary Struhl. As a baby grows from an egg cell, how do the new cells know whether to become nerves, skin, bone or blood? A protein called Notch plays a role, helping cells communicate and organize themselves with their neighbours in a process called signaling. Let top scientists explain how Notch works and reveal fascinating new connections this understanding has uncovered.

• Kids and Researchers Team Up to Tackle Pain, by Jennifer Stinson. Pain that doesn’t go away after an injury – called chronic pain – can make everyday life difficult, and for many years, doctors did not have good ways to treat this in young people. By partnering with kids and teens, better tools and treatments can be designed. Get inspired by how young people with chronic pain are now not just patients, but instead they are shaping the future of healthcare.

• A Packet of Hope: Changing How the World Treats Childhood Malnutrition, by André Briend. Severe acute malnutrition threatens the lives of millions of children worldwide, yet for decades, treatment was only available in hospitals. Two simple tools made it possible for families to get life-saving care at home: a safe, ready-to-use therapeutic food paste, and a measuring tool to find kids most at risk. Celebrate how millions of children have received faster treatment, and gained better chances to recover and grow up healthy.

The publication of the collection leads up to the annual event of Gairdner Science Week, which will run 20-23 October 2025. Taking place across Canada and online, this national, dynamic celebration of global health innovation amplifies the power of science to change lives. The laureates featured in these articles will also take part in a variety of free, public events during Science Week, giving audiences the chance to hear directly from the researchers behind the discoveries. FYM is proud to support this by making the Collection articles and its ebook ready to read and distribute at the live and online events.

Frontiers for Young Minds’ head of program Laura Henderson commented:

“We are delighted to continue our fruitful collaboration with the Gairdner Foundation in this second volume of their award-winning science, as our mission and values align very closely with Gairdner and other global organizations who share the best science more widely and openly and promote discoveries towards all of us being able to live healthy lives on a healthy planet.”

Janet Rossant, President and Scientific Director of the Gairdner Foundation, added:

“Working with Frontiers for Young Minds allows us to extend the Gairdner Foundation’s mission to celebrate, inform and inspire scientific excellence around the globe. Together, we are making cutting-edge discoveries accessible and engaging for young audiences, sparking curiosity and opening doors to future scientific exploration. We are proud to see our laureates’ work translated into stories that not only explain science but also empower kids to see themselves as future innovators.”

You can read the first volume of Gairdner Award-winning articles, from the 2023 laureates, here.

About Frontiers for Young Minds

Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM) is an award-winning, open-access, scientific journal for kids, founded as a non-profit engagement project by the Frontiers Research Foundation. It publishes articles written by leading researchers and peer reviewed by children aged 8-15. The journal features over 1,800 articles from 4,600+ authors, achieving more than 58 million views and downloads. More than 10,000 young minds have reviewed the articles with the guidance of 900+ science mentors, from 65 countries worldwide total. Frontiers for Young Minds publishes across the whole scope of STEMM, with materials available in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and French.

About the Gairdner Foundation

The mission of the Gairdner Foundation is to celebrate, inform and inspire scientific excellence around the globe. The Gairdner Foundation, established in 1957, is dedicated to fulfilling James A. Gairdner’s vision to recognize major research contributions to the treatment of disease and alleviation of human suffering. Through annual prestigious Canada Gairdner Awards, the Gairdner Foundation celebrates the world’s most creative and accomplished researchers whose work is improving the health and wellbeing of people around the world. Since its inception, 434 awards have been bestowed on laureates from over 40 countries, and of those awardees, 102 have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes.

The Gairdner Foundation believes in coming together to openly discuss science to better engage the public, understand the problems we face, and work together to find solutions. Since its founding, many outreach events and programs have been developed with the goal of inspiring the next generation of scientific innovators and fostering an informed society. gairdner.org