Scientist Feng Zhang honored with the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award for his groundbreaking work in genome editing.
Distinguished molecular biologist Feng Zhang has been bestowed the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award, Canada's most prestigious scientific prize, in recognition of his pivotal role in developing the groundbreaking CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system. As a core institute member of the Broad Institute, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and a W. M. Keck Career Development Associate Professor in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Zhang shares this recognition with four other pioneers in the CRISPR field: Rodolphe Barrangou from North Carolina State University, Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute, Jennifer Doudna of the University of California at Berkeley, and Philippe Horvath from DuPont Nutrition and Health.
Zhang's team, led by Zhang, was the first to report CRISPR-based genome editing in mammalian cells in 2013, a paper that remains the most-cited in the field. The Gairdner Foundation honors Zhang for his work that has opened up new possibilities for understanding human biology and disease.
In addition to his work on CRISPR-Cas9, Zhang has a notable history of innovation. As a graduate student at Stanford University, he collaborated with Karl Deisseroth and Edward Boyden, a fellow professor at MIT, to develop optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to control neuronal activity using light. For their efforts, the trio received the Perl-UNC Prize in Neuroscience in 2012. Zhang has also received numerous other awards, including 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), and the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Chen New Investigator Award (2016).
One of Zhang's long-term goals is to harness genome-editing technologies to better understand the nervous system and develop new approaches for treating psychiatric diseases. The Zhang lab continues to improve and expand the gene-editing toolbox, sharing CRISPR-Cas9 components in response to nearly 30,000 requests from academic laboratories worldwide and training thousands of researchers.
Michael Sipser, dean of MIT's School of Science and the Barton L. Weller Professor of Mathematics, applauds Zhang's contributions, stating, "CRISPR is a revolutionary breakthrough that will advance the frontiers of science and enable us to meet the health challenges of the 21st century in ways we are only beginning to imagine." Eric Lander, the founding director of the Broad Institute, shares the sentiment, saying, "CRISPR is a great example of how the scientific community can come together and make stunning progress in a short period of time."
The Canada Gairdner International Awards have been presented annually since 1959 to recognize and reward the achievements of medical researchers whose work significantly contributes to the understanding of human biology and disease. The awards provide a $100,000 (CDN) prize to each scientist for their work, and the winners are selected after a rigorous two-part review by a medical advisory board composed of 33 eminent scientists from around the world.
The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was established in 2004 with the objective of empowering creative scientists to revolutionize medicine. Through its collaborations with over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide, the Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections, discover the molecular basis of major human diseases, develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics, and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods, and data openly to the entire scientific community. For more information, visit http://www.broadinstitute.org.
- Feng Zhang, a distinguished molecular biologist, has been awarded the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award for his pioneering role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system.
- As a core institute member of the Broad Institute and an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Zhang shares this recognition with four other CRISPR pioneers.
- Zhang's team, under his leadership, first reported CRISPR-based genome editing in mammalian cells in 2013, a paper that remains the most-cited in the field.
- The Gairdner Foundation honors Zhang for his work that has opened up new possibilities for understanding human biology and disease.
- In addition to CRISPR, Zhang has a notable history of innovation, including the development of optogenetics as a graduate student.
- Zhang has received numerous awards for his work, such as the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award, the Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award, and the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Chen New Investigator Award.
- One of Zhang's long-term goals is to use genome-editing technologies to better understand the nervous system and develop new approaches for treating psychiatric diseases.
- The Canada Gairdner International Awards, established in 1959, recognize and reward medical researchers whose work significantly contributes to the understanding of human biology and disease.
- The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, established in 2004, seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections, discover the molecular basis of major human diseases, and disseminate discoveries to the scientific community.
- Media reports about Zhang's work in health and neuroscience, technology, and medicine continue to generate public interest in advancements in science and health-and-wellness.
