On October 17, Dr. Chen Zhijian, a distinguished alumnus of FNU, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, an investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a distinguished professor of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM) at its annual meeting of all the academicians.
Dr. Chen Zhijian is one of the pioneers in the field of innate immunity, and has solved the century-old problem of DNA immune identification. He is also the discoverer of such significant innate immune molecules as cGAS, cGAMP, MAVS, which play a role in immune defense against viruses, bacteria and other pathogens and malignant cells, as well as in autoimmune diseases such as lupus. These findings are a major breakthrough in the understanding of immunity and diseases, and have a profound impact on guiding drug development and clinical application. For his outstanding scientific contributions, Dr. Chen has received a number of major science awards, including the NAS Award in Molecular Biology (2012) from the US National Academy of Sciences, the ASBMB-Merck Award (2015) from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences (2018) from the Foundation for the US National Institutes of Health, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019) and the William B. Coley Award (2020), the top prize in the tumor immunology community.
(Translated by Wang Cheng/ Reviewed by Xie Xiujuan)