Linda Liau, MD, PhD, has spent decades working to improve the lives of people with brain cancer.
An internationally renowned neurosurgeon, her scientific discoveries have changed how glioblastoma is treated, both surgically and medically. She pioneered the use of functional fMRI imaging in combination with intra-operative brain mapping during awake brain tumor surgeries, which rendered some inoperable tumors operable, and developed the first personalized brain cancer vaccine. Her work has extended lives, provided hope to countless patients and inspired a generation of physicians and scientists.
Now, Dr. Liau is being recognized for her contributions to humanity with the UCLA Younes Nazarian Medical Humanitarian Prize, given to a UCLA Health practitioner whose clinical care, medical research and technological innovations support the future of well-being.
“What really meant a lot to me was the word ‘humanitarian’ in the prize,” Dr. Liau says. “I even looked up the word humanitarian … it really just means being someone that alleviates suffering and makes life better for others, and I think that’s essentially what physicians and physician-scientists do.”
Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at UCLA Health and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Liau has published hundreds of papers about her scientific discoveries, but “at the end, it really is about people,” she says. “Medicine is about people. And the reason any of this really matters is because it hopefully helps people.”
After all, she said, getting to know her patients and their families and providing them hope is the most meaningful aspect of her work, even if it never shows up in any medical journal.
The Nazarian Prize is a financial gift that recipients can use in any way they choose. Dr. Liau says the award will support care coordination for clinical trial participants, helping them get to their appointments and treatment locations.
UCLA Health is honored to present Dr. Liau with the 2026 Nazarian Prize, says Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and CEO of the UCLA Hospital System.
“Dr. Liau’s extraordinary leadership, groundbreaking contributions to neurosurgery and brain tumor research and unwavering dedication to advancing patient care have transformed countless lives,” Spisso says. “Her remarkable achievements and enduring legacy of innovation, excellence and compassionate service to patients reflects the mission of this award.”
The Medical Humanitarian Prize was established by the Nazarian family “to honor the memory of my father and his profound belief in the power of compassion and innovation to heal,” said Sharon Nazarian, PhD, president of the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation. “The prize honors his legacy and reflects our family’s commitment to improving lives, fostering progress and inspiring others to work for the betterment of humanity,”
Younes Nazarian, who died in 2022, was a businessman and philanthropist dedicated to supporting education, arts and health in the United States and Israel.
Previous recipients of the Nazarian Prize include pulmonologist and lung transplant researcher John Belperio, MD, Anjay Rastogi, MD, PhD, director of the UCLA Health CORE Kidney Program, and David Reuben, MD, chief of the Division of Geriatrics Medicine at UCLA Health.
Reflecting on her career as she accepts the Nazarian Prize, Dr. Liau considers the eras of progress in brain cancer research. When she first started practicing medicine in the 1990s, MRI scans were becoming popular. One of her early innovations included using anatomical and functional MRI technologies to perform “awake surgeries” that allowed her to operate on tumors previously considered inoperable.
The early 2000s saw the advent of genomic sequencing, which allowed for more targeted therapies and precision treatment. Because of the National Cancer Institute-designated UCLA Brain Cancer SPORE (Specialized Program in Oncologic Research Excellence), UCLA Health now performs molecular genetic studies and next generation genomic sequencing on almost all brain tumors, Dr. Liau says. This allows for the discovery of personalized targets for new treatments.
Now we are in the era of cancer immunotherapy.
“I’ve been working on cancer immunotherapy for almost 30 years, but I’m excited about it now because I think we’re finally going to hopefully break that wall to hopefully get a cure to glioblastoma,” says Dr. Liau, who is a member of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “There are a lot of FDA-approved cancer therapies for every other cancer, but still not one for brain cancer, but I think we’re coming close.”
Dr. Liau and her team are working on combination therapies that combine the dendritic cell-based vaccines she developed with checkpoint inhibitors and newer immunotherapies. She’s also hopeful that AI and machine learning will speed study results by creating matched “synthetic controls” or “digital twins” based on real-world electronic medical records, rather than having to offer placebo treatments to patients dying of a life-threatening disease with less than two-year survival.
She remains excited about her work, the discoveries to be made and how they will impact her patients.
Receiving the Nazarian Prize “really got me to think about the ‘why’ – why I’m doing all this in my career,” she says. “And to get this honor not for the ‘what’” but the ‘why’ is really meaningful.”
