Institute News: Announcements

Ten researchers from MIT and Broad receive NIH Director’s Awards

Anne Trafton |

The High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) program, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund, has awarded 86 grants to scientists with unconventional approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. Ten of the awardees are affiliated with MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

The NIH typically supports research projects, not individual scientists, but the HRHR program identifies specific researchers with innovative ideas to address gaps in biomedical research. The program issues four types of awards annually — the Pioneer Award, the New Innovator Award, the Transformative Research Award and the Early Independence Award — to “high-caliber investigators whose ideas stretch the boundaries of our scientific knowledge.”

Four researchers who are affiliated with either MIT or the Broad Institute received this year’s New Innovator Awards, which support “unusually innovative research” from early career investigators. They are:

  • Paul Blainey, an MIT assistant professor of biological engineering and a core member of the Broad Institute, is an expert in microanalysis systems for studies of individual molecules and cells. The award will fund the establishment a new technology that enables advanced readout from living cells.
  • Kevin Esvelt, an associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT’s Media Lab, invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems. Esvelt plans to use the NIH grant to develop powerful “daisy drive” systems for more precise genetic alterations of wild organisms. Such an intervention has the potential to serve as a powerful weapon against malaria, Zika, Lyme disease, and many other infectious diseases.
  • Evan Macosko is an associate member of the Broad Institute who develops molecular techniques to more deeply understand the function of cellular specialization in the nervous system. Macosko’s award will fund a novel technology, Slide-seq, which enables genome-wide expression analysis of brain tissue sections at single-cell resolution.
  • Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, an MIT assistant professor of chemistry, combines tools from chemistry, optics, biology, and microscopy to develop new approaches to study the dynamics of biological systems. Her award will be used to fund the development of a new nanometer-distance assay that directly accesses protein motion with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution under physiological conditions.

Recipients of the Early Independence Award include three Broad Institute Fellows. The award recognizes “exceptional junior scientists” with an opportunity to skip traditional postdoctoral training and move immediately into independent research positions.

  • Ahmed Badran is a Broad Institute Fellow who studies the function of ribosomes and the control of protein synthesis. Ribosomes are important targets for antibiotics, and the NIH award will support the development of a new technology platform for probing ribosome function within living cells.
  • Fei Chen, a Broad Institute Fellow who is also a research affiliate at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, has pioneered novel molecular and microscopy tools to illuminate biological pathways and function. He will use one of these tools, expansion microscopy, to explore the molecular basis of glioblastomas, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
  • Hilary Finucane, a Broad Institute Fellow who recently received her PhD from MIT’s Department of Mathematics, develops computational methods for analyzing biological data. She plans to develop methods to analyze large-scale genomic data to identify disease-relevant cell types and tissues, a necessary first step for understanding molecular mechanisms of disease.

Among the recipients of the NIH’s Pioneer Awards are Kay Tye, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and a member of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and Feng Zhang, the James and Patricia Poitras ’63 Professor in Neuroscience, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and biological engineering at MIT, a core member of the Broad Institute, and an investigator at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Recipients of this award are challenged to pursue “groundbreaking, high-impact approaches to a broad area of biomedical or behavioral science. Tye, who studies the brain mechanisms underlying emotion and behavior, will use her award to look at the neural representation of social homeostasis and social rank. Zhang, who pioneered the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR, plans to develop a suite of tools designed to achieve precise genome surgery for repairing disease-causing changes in DNA.

Ed Boyden, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and biological engineering at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, is a recipient of the Transformative Research Award. This award promotes “cross-cutting, interdisciplinary approaches that could potentially create or challenge existing paradigms.” Boyden, who develops new strategies for understanding and engineering brain circuits, will use the grant to develop high-speed 3-D imaging of neural activity.

This year, the NIH issued a total of 12 Pioneer Awards, 55 New Innovator Awards, 8 Transformative Research Awards, and 11 Early Independence Awards. The awards total $263 million and represent contributions from the NIH Common Fund; National Institute of General Medical Sciences; National Institute of Mental Health; National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health; and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

“I continually point to this program as an example of the creative and revolutionary research NIH supports,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins. “The quality of the investigators and the impact their research has on the biomedical field is extraordinary.”

Feng Zhang Wins the 2017 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists

Anne Trafton |

The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences today announced the 2017 Laureates of the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. Starting with a pool of 308 nominees – the most promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger nominated by America’s top academic and research institutions – a distinguished jury first narrowed their selections to 30 Finalists, and then to three outstanding Laureates, one each from the disciplines of Life Sciences, Chemistry and Physical Sciences & Engineering. Each Laureate will receive $250,000 – the largest unrestricted award of its kind for early career scientists and engineers. This year’s Blavatnik National Laureates are:

Feng Zhang, PhD, Core Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, MIT; Robertson Investigator, New York Stem Cell Foundation; James and Patricia Poitras ’63 Professor in Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. Dr. Zhang is being recognized for his role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system and demonstrating pioneering uses in mammalian cells, and for his development of revolutionary technologies in neuroscience.

Melanie S. Sanford, PhD, Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry, University of Michigan. Dr. Sanford is being celebrated for developing simpler chemical approaches – with less environmental impact – to the synthesis of molecules that have applications ranging from carbon dioxide recycling to drug discovery.

Yi Cui, PhD, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Photon Science and Chemistry, Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Dr. Cui is being honored for his technological innovations in the use of nanomaterials for environmental protection and the development of sustainable energy sources.

“The work of these three brilliant Laureates demonstrates the exceptional science being performed at America’s premiere research institutions and the discoveries that will make the lives of future generations immeasurably better,” said Len Blavatnik, Founder and Chairman of Access Industries, head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation, and an Academy Board Governor.

“Each of our 2017 National Laureates is shifting paradigms in areas that profoundly affect the way we tackle the health of our population and our planet — improved ways to store energy, “greener” drug and fuel production, and novel tools to correct disease-causing genetic mutations,” said Ellis Rubinstein, President and CEO of the Academy and Chair of the Awards’ Scientific Advisory Council. “Recognition programs like the Blavatnik Awards provide incentives and resources for rising stars, and help them to continue their important work. We look forward to learning where their innovations and future discoveries will take us in the years ahead.”

The annual Blavatnik Awards, established in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and administered by the New York Academy of Sciences, recognize exceptional young researchers who will drive the next generation of innovation by answering today’s most complex and intriguing scientific questions.

McGovern Institute awards 2017 Scolnick Prize to Catherine Dulac

by Charles Jennings |

The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT announced today that Catherine Dulac of Harvard University is the winner of the 2017 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience. She was awarded the prize for her contributions to the understanding of how pheromones control brain function and behavior and the characterization of neuronal circuits underlying sex-specific behaviors. The Scolnick Prize is awarded annually by the McGovern Institute to recognize outstanding advances in any field of neuroscience.

Dulac is the Higgins Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, where she served as Department Chair from 2007-2013. She is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She received her PhD from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, where she studied mechanisms of neural crest development with Nicole le Douarin at the College de France. She moved to the US in 1992 as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Richard Axel at Columbia University, and joined the Harvard faculty in 1996.

Catherine DulacDulac is best known for her discovery of pheromone receptors and downstream brain circuits controlling sex-specific behaviors. Pheromones are volatile chemical signals that play a major role in controlling mammalian behaviors, in particular social and sexual behaviors such as aggression and reproduction. Unlike odorants, which give rise to the perception of smell, and which can be learned and flexibly associated with different stimuli, the responses to pheromones are fixed and stereotypic. Pheromone responses were known to require the vomeronasal organ (VNO), a specialized part of the olfactory epithelium within the nose, but until Dulac’s work, the molecular identity of the receptors and the neuronal circuits that underlie pheromone-evoked responses had been elusive.

In work that began while she was a postdoc, Dulac set out to identify these receptors, developing novel methods for analyzing RNA from individual sensory neurons. This pioneering work not only led her to the discovery of a large family of pheromone receptor genes, but also demonstrated the feasibility of analyzing the transcriptomes of individual neurons, an approach that is now widely used to study the brain’s extraordinary complexity.

Soon after starting her own lab at Harvard, Dulac discovered a second family of pheromone receptors. Both families are distinct from odorant receptors and are expressed in characteristic spatial patterns within the VNO. Dulac went on to study the mechanism of pheromone action, identifying the ion channel TRPC2 as an essential player in the response of VNO neurons to pheromone signaling. By genetically manipulating this signaling pathway in mice, Dulac was able to show that inputs from the VNO are necessary for gender identification and for the sex-specificity of social behaviors, including mating, aggression and parenting. She was also able to trace the connections from the VNO to the brain systems that control these behaviors, and to characterize specific neuronal populations that are necessary and sufficient for specific social behaviors. In one study, for example, she identified a population of neurons within the hypothalamus that induce parenting behaviors while suppressing aggression toward the offspring that would otherwise be triggered in males by signals from the VNO.

In another recent line of work, Dulac has studied genomic imprinting, an epigenetic phenomenon by which certain genes are differentially expressed depending on whether they were inherited from the mother or the father. Dulac’s work has revealed that imprinting of brain genes is much more common than previously realized, with important implications for basic biology and for the epidemiology of brain disorders.
Among her many honors and awards, Dulac is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

The McGovern Institute will award the Scolnick Prize to Dr. Dulac on Monday March 13. At 4:00pm she will deliver a lecture entitled “The Neurobiology of Social Behavior Circuits,” to be followed by a reception, at the McGovern Institute in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, 43 Vassar Street (building 46, room 3002) in Cambridge. The event is free and open to the public.

New center for autism research established at the McGovern Institute

by McGovern Institute |

The McGovern Institute is pleased to announce the establishment of a new center dedicated to autism research. The center is made possible by a kick-off commitment of $20 million, made by Lisa Yang and MIT alumnus Hock Tan ’75.

The Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research will support research on the genetic, biological and neural bases of autism spectrum disorders, a developmental disability estimated to affect 1 in 68 individuals in the United States. Tan and Yang hope their initial investment will stimulate additional support and help foster collaborative research efforts to erase the devastating effects of this disorder on individuals, their families and the broader autism community.

“With the Tan-Yang Center for Autism Research, we can imagine a world in which medical science understands and supports those with autism — and we can focus MIT’s distinctive strengths on making that dream a reality. Lisa and Hock’s gift reminds us of the impact we envision for the MIT Campaign for a Better World.  I am grateful for their leadership and generosity, and inspired by the possibilities ahead,” says MIT President L. Rafael Reif.

“I am thrilled to be investing in an institution that values a multidisciplinary collaborative approach to solving complex problems such as autism,” says Hock Tan, who graduated from MIT in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in mechanical engineering. “We expect that successful research originating from our Center will have a significant impact on the autism community.”

Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Tan has held several high-level finance and executive positions since leaving MIT. Tan is currently CEO of chipmaker Broadcom, Ltd.

Research at the Tan-Yang Center will focus on four major lines of investigation: genetics, neural circuits, novel autism models and the translation of basic research to the clinical setting.  By focusing research efforts on the origins of autism in our genes, in the womb and in the first years of life, the Tan-Yang Center aims to develop methods to better detect and potentially prevent autism spectrum disorders entirely. To help meet this challenge, the Center will support collaborations across multiple disciplines—from genes to neural circuits—both within and beyond MIT.

“MIT has some of the world’s leading scientists studying autism,” says McGovern Institute director Robert Desimone. “Support from the Tan-Yang Center will enable us to pursue exciting new directions that could not be funded by traditional sources. We will exploit revolutionary new tools, such as CRISPR and optogenetics, that are transforming research in neuroscience. We hope to not only identify new targets for medicines, but also develop novel treatments that are not based on standard pharmacological approaches. By supporting cutting-edge autism research here at MIT as well as our collaborative institutions, the Center holds great promise to accelerate our basic understanding of this complex disorder.”

“Millions of families have been impacted by autism,” says Yang, a longtime advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities and learning differences. “I am profoundly hopeful that the discoveries made at the Tan-Yang Center will have a long-term impact on the field of autism research and will provide fresh answers and potential new treatments for individuals affected by this disorder.”

Feng Zhang named James and Patricia Poitras Professor in Neuroscience

Anne Trafton |

The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has announced the appointment of Feng Zhang as the inaugural chairholder of the James and Patricia Poitras (1963) Professorship in Neuroscience. This new endowed professorship was made possible through a generous gift by Patricia and James Poitras ’63. The professorship is the second endowed chair Mr. and Mrs. Poitras have established at MIT, and extends their longtime support for mental health research.

“This newly created chair further enhances all that Jim and Pat have done for mental illness research at MIT,” said Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute. “The Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research has galvanized psychiatric research in multiple labs at MIT, and this new professorship will grant critical support to Professor Zhang’s genome engineering technologies, which continue to significantly advance mental illness research in labs worldwide.”

James and Patricia Poitras founded the Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research at MIT in 2007. The Center has enabled dozens of advances in mental illness research, including the development of new disease models and novel technologies. Partnerships between the center and McLean Hospital have also resulted in improved methods for predicting and treating psychiatric disorders. In 2003, the Poitras Family established the James W. (1963) and Patricia T. Poitras Professor of Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, currently held by Guoping Feng.

“Providing support for high-risk, high-reward projects that have the potential to significantly impact individuals living with mental illness has been immensely rewarding to us,” Mr. and Mrs. Poitras say. “We are most interested in bringing basic scientific research to bear on new treatment options for psychiatric diseases. The work of Feng Zhang and his team is immeasurably promising to us and to the field of brain disorders research.”

Zhang joined MIT in 2011 as an investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and an assistant professor in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering. In 2013, he was named the W.M. Keck Career Development Professor in Biomedical Engineering, and in 2016 he was awarded tenure. In addition to his roles at MIT, Zhang is a core member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

“I am deeply honored to be named the first James and Patricia Poitras Professor in Neuroscience,” says Zhang. “The Poitras Family and I share a passion for researching, treating, and eventually curing major mental illness. This chair is a terrific recognition of my group’s dedication to advancing genomic and molecular tools to research and one day solve psychiatric illness.”

Zhang earned his BA in chemistry and physics from Harvard College and his PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. Zhang has received numerous awards for his work in genome editing, especially the CRISPR gene editing system, and optogenetics. These include the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, the Society for Neuroscience’s Young Investigator Award, the Okazaki Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Tang Prize. Zhang is a founder of Editas Medicine, a genome editing company founded by world leaders in the fields of genome editing, protein engineering, and molecular and structural biology.

Monumental new sculpture commissioned for MIT’s McGovern Institute

by Julie Pryor |

The newest addition to MIT’s Public Art Collection is now on permanent display at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at 550 Main Street in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. “SCIENTIA,” a monumental bronze sculpture by Ursula von Rydingsvard is a gift from Lore Harp McGovern and represents the 52nd piece of public art on campus. The new work will be dedicated in a public ceremony on Friday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m., followed by a free artist talk at 6 p.m. in the Singleton Auditorium (Room 46-3002).

“’SCIENTIA’ represents that art and science are not separate entities,” says Lore Harp McGovern, co-founder of the McGovern Institute and a member of the Council for the Arts at MIT. “Art defines our humanity, advances our curiosity, and forces us to ask big questions — questions the McGovern Institute for Brain Research is trying to answer. ‘SCIENTIA’ invites you in.”

Von Rydingsvard’s “SCIENTIA” is among her most ambitious sculptures to date, at approximately 24 feet tall and over 17,000 pounds. In creating the work, the artist first produced a wood model in her studio using 4×4-inch cedar beams milled for the construction industry.  Using circular saws and a range of cutting tools, she sliced, marked, and shaped the wood elements, then stacked them to create layers that were glued and screwed into place. The full-scale wood model was then transported to Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry (founded by Richard Polich SM ’65), where the majority of the sculpture was sand cast while the delicate filigree sections were cast using the lost-wax technique. Von Rydingsvard patinated the bronze surface by hand with chemicals and a blow torch.

For over 30 years, von Rydingsvard has been making monumental sculptures that reveal the trace of the human hand and resemble objects and environments that echo the artist’s family heritage in pre-industrial Poland. The artist’s childhood was marked by the strain of living in eight different refugee camps over the course of five years. Her earliest recollections — of displacement and subsistence through humble means — infuse her work with emotional potency. Von Rydingsvard has built towering cedar structures, creating intricate networks of individual beams, shaped by sharp and lyrical cuts and fused together to form rich, dynamic surfaces. While abstract at its core, von Rydingsvard’s work takes visual cues from the landscape, the human body, and utilitarian objects — such as the artist’s collection of household vessels — and demonstrates an interest in the point where the human-made meets nature.

“Ursula von Rydingsvard’s commissioned piece for the McGovern is a fantastic addition to MIT’s great public art collection,” List Visual Arts Center Director Paul C. Ha says. “This powerful sculpture will inspire many and will be one of the signature pieces in our collection. We’re grateful for Ms. McGovern’s thoughtfulness and her generosity in helping us acquire this magnificent piece for MIT.”

View the SCIENTIA photo gallery >>

Faculty at MIT and beyond respond forcefully to an article critical of Suzanne Corkin

Anne Trafton |

On August 7, 2016, the New York Times Magazine published “The Brain That Couldn’t Remember,” an article adapted from the forthcoming book “Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets,” by Luke Dittrich. The article is highly critical of the late Suzanne Corkin, who was a professor emerita of neuroscience until her death on May 24.

In response to the article, more than 200 members of the international scientific community — most from outside MIT — have signed a letter in support of Corkin and her research with the amnesic patient Henry Molaison.

What follows is a statement by James DiCarlo, the Peter de Florez Professor of Neuroscience and head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT.

***

In “The Brain That Couldn’t Remember,” three allegations are made against Professor Suzanne Corkin, who died on May 24. Professors John Gabrieli and Nancy Kanwisher at MIT have examined evidence in relation to each allegation, and, as detailed below, have found significant evidence that contradicts each allegation. In our judgment, the evidence below rebuts each claim.

1. Allegation that research records were or would be destroyed or shredded.

We believe that no records were destroyed and, to the contrary, that Professor Corkin worked in her final days to organize and preserve all records. Even as her health failed (she had advanced cancer and was receiving chemotherapy), she instructed her assistant to continue to organize, label, and maintain all records related to Henry Molaison. The records currently remain within our department.

Assuming that the interview is accurately and fully reported by Mr. Dittrich, we cannot explain why Professor Corkin made the comments reported in the article. This may have been related to tensions between the author and Professor Corkin because she had turned down his request to examine Mr. Molaison’s confidential medical and research records.

Regardless, the critical point is not what was said in an interview, but rather what actions were actually taken by Professor Corkin. The actions were to preserve the records.

2. Allegation that the finding of an additional lesion in left orbitofrontal cortex was suppressed.

The public record is clear that Professor Corkin communicated this discovery of an additional lesion in Mr. Molaison to both scientific and public audiences. This factual evidence is contradictory to any allegation of the suppression of a finding.

The original scientific report (Nature Communications, 2014) of the post-mortem examination of Mr. Molaison’s brain included this information in the most prominent and widely read portion of the report, the abstract.

In addition, Professor Corkin herself disseminated this information in public forums, including a 2014 interview, posted on MIT News and subsequently elsewhere online, in which she said: “We discovered a new lesion in the lateral orbital gyrus of the left frontal lobe. This damage was also visible in the postmortem MRI scans. The etiology of this lesion is presently unknown; future histological studies will clarify the cause and timeframe of this damage. Currently, it is unclear whether this lesion had any consequence for H.M.’s behavior.”

3. Allegation that there was something inappropriate in the selection of Tom Mooney as Mr. Molaison’s guardian.

In her book “Permanent Present Tense” (2013), Professor Corkin describes precisely the provenance of Mr. Molaison’s guardianship (page 201).

Briefly, in 1974 Mr. Molaison and his mother (who was in failing health; his father was deceased) moved in with Lillian Herrick, whose first husband was related to Mr. Molaison’s mother. Mrs. Herrick is described as caring for Mr. Molaison until 1980, when she was diagnosed with advanced cancer, and Mr. Molaison was admitted to a nursing home founded by her brother.

In 1991, the Probate Court in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, appointed Mrs. Herrick’s son, Tom Mooney, as Mr. Molaison’s conservator. (Mr. Mooney is referred to as “Mr. M” in the book because of his desire for privacy.) This family took an active interest in helping Mr. Molaison and his mother, and was able to help place him in the nursing home that took care of him.

Mr. Dittrich provides no evidence that anything untoward occurred, and we are not aware of anything untoward in this process. Mr. Dittrich identifies some individuals who were genetically closer to Mr. Molaison than Mrs. Herrick or her son, but it is our understanding that this family took in Mr. Molaison and his mother, and took care of Mr. Molaison for many years. Mr. Mooney was appointed conservator by the local court after a valid legal process, which included providing notice of a hearing and appointment of counsel to Mr. Molaison.

Journalists are absolutely correct to hold scientists to very high standards. I — and over 200 scientists who have signed a letter to the editor in support of Professor Corkin — believe she more than achieved those high standards. However, the author (and, implicitly, the Times) has failed to do so.

James J. DiCarlo MD, PhD
Peter de Florez Professor of Neuroscience
Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Schwerpunkt

Anne Trafton |

There’s a new focal point at the McGovern Institute and it’s called Schwerpunkt. From the German word meaning “main focus” or “focal point,” Schwerpunkt is a suspended anamorphic neuron sculpture by Ralph Helmick.

Anamorphosisis a distorted image that becomes recognizable only when viewed from a particular point. The word anamorphosis originates from the Greek words anamorphoun (to transform) and morphe (form, shape). Examples of anamorphic art date back to the early Renaissance, with Leonardo’s Eye (Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1485) being the first example of perspective anamorphosis in modern times.

In Schwerpunkt, one hundred gold neurons seemingly float at random above the McGovern Institute lobby and make a beautiful transformation at the focal point on the third floor atrium level. This sculpture is made possible by a gift from Hugo Shong in memory of Patrick J. McGovern.

Photos from the June 28 opening of Schwerpunkt may be viewed below.

Feng Zhang named 2016 Tang Prize Laureate

Anne Trafton |

Feng Zhang, a core institute member of the Broad Institute, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and W. M. Keck Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences with a joint appointment in Biological Engineering, has been named a 2016 Tang Prize Laureate in Biopharmaceutical Science for his role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system and demonstrating pioneering uses in eukaryotic cells.

The Tang Prize is a biennial international award granted by judges convened by Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top academic research institution.

In January 2013 Zhang and his team were first to report CRISPR-based genome editing in mammalian cells, in what has become the most-cited paper in the CRISPR field. Zhang shares the award with Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute and Jennifer A. Doudna of the University of California at Berkeley.

“To be recognized with the Tang Prize is an incredible honor for our team and it demonstrates the impact of the entire CRISPR field, which began with microbiologists and will continue for years to come as we advance techniques for genome editing,” Zhang said. “Thanks to the scientific community’s commitment to collaboration and an emphasis on sharing across institutions and borders, the last few years have seen a revolution in our ability to understand cancer, autoimmune disease, mental health and infectious disease. We are entering a remarkable period in our understanding of human health.”

Although Zhang is well-known for his work with CRISPR, the 34-year-old scientist has a long track record of innovation. As a graduate student at Stanford University, Zhang worked with Karl Deisseroth and Edward Boyden, who is now also a professor at MIT, to develop optogenetics, in which neuronal activity can be controlled with light. The three shared the Perl-UNC Prize in Neuroscience in 2012 as recognition of these efforts. Zhang has also received the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award (2014), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine (2014, shared with Charpentier and Doudna), the Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award (2015), the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Chen New Investigator Award (2016), and the Canada Gairdner International Award (2016, shared with Charpentier and Doudna, as well as Rodolphe Barrangou from North Carolina State University and Philippe Horvath from DuPont Nutrition & Health).

One of Zhang’s long-term goals is to use genome-editing technologies to better understand the nervous system and develop new approaches to the treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases. The Zhang lab has shared CRISPR-Cas9 components in response to more than 30,000 requests from academic laboratories around the world and has trained thousands of researchers in the use of CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing technology through in-person events and online opportunities. In his current research, he and his students and postdoctoral fellows continue to improve and expand the gene-editing toolbox.

“Professor Zhang’s lab has become a global hub for CRISPR research,” said MIT Provost Martin Schmidt. “His group has shared CRISPR-Cas9 components with tens of thousands of scientists, and has trained many more in the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The Tang Prize is a fitting recognition of all that Professor Zhang has done, and continues to do, to advance this field.”

“CRISPR is a powerful new tool that is transforming biological science while promising revolutionary advances in health care,” said Michael Sipser, dean of the School of Science and Donner Professor of Mathematics at MIT. “We are delighted that Feng Zhang, together with Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, have been recognized with the Tang Prize.”

“It is wonderful that the Academia Sinica has chosen to recognize the CRISPR field with this year’s Tang Prize,” said Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute. “On behalf of my colleagues at the Broad and MIT, I wish to congratulate Feng, as well as Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, along with the many teams of scientists and all others who have contributed to these transformational discoveries.”

Founded in 2012 by Samuel Yin, the Tang Prize is a non-governmental, non-profit educational foundation that awards outstanding contributions in four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology, and rule of law. Nomination and selection of laureates is conducted by the Academia Sinica. Each award cycle, the academy convenes four autonomous selection committees, each consisting of an assembly of international experts, until a consensus on the recipients is reached. Recipients are chosen on the basis of the originality of their work along with their contributions to society, irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, gender, and political affiliation.

This year marks the second awarding of the prize. This year’s awardees will receive the medal, diploma, and cash prize at an award ceremony on September 25 in Taipei. Recipients in each Tang Prize category receive a total of approximately $1.24 million (USD) and a grant of approximately $311,000 (USD). The cash prize and grants are divided equally among joint recipients in each category.

 

McGovern Institute for Brain Research hosts Chinese delegation

Anne Trafton |

On Thursday May 12, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT hosted a visiting delegation from China, headed by the Party Secretary of Guangdong Province, Hu Chunhua (Chinese: 胡春华 ) and also including the Mayor of Shenzhen, Xu Qin (Chinese: 许勤 ), the Chinese Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai (Chinese: 崔天凯 ) and the Consul-General to New York, Zhang Qiyue (Chinese: 章启月 ). The visitors met with McGovern Director Robert Desimone and faculty members H. Robert Horvitz and Guoping Feng, and listened to presentations on the McGovern Institute’s collaboration with neuroscience researchers at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT). The director of SIAT, Fan Jianping (Chinese: 樊建平 ) also attended the meeting, and they discussed the potential for future collaborations and the commercial development of new therapeutics for brain disease in Guangdong.

Robert Desimone, the McGovern Director, said “It was an honor to have Party Secretary Hu Chunhua and his delegation visit the McGovern Institute. He expressed his sincere concern for the many people suffering from brain disease, ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s disease. We believe our collaborative projects in Guangdong Province offer real hope.” The delegation later toured the MIT Media Lab and met with MIT Provost Martin Schmidt.