UT Southwestern biochemist Zhijian ‘James’ Chen, Ph.D., earns prestigious Lasker Award
Dr. Chen’s discovery of cGAS, which triggers innate immunity, also honored with Germany’s top scientific prize
DALLAS – Sept. 19, 2024 – Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of the cGAS enzyme, which senses invading pathogens and triggers the body’s innate immune system.
The Lasker Awards, often called “America's Nobels,” recognize significant advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of human disease and are regarded as the country’s preeminent biomedical research prize. Since 1945, the Lasker Foundation has awarded more than 400 prizes. Dr. Chen becomes the fourth UT Southwestern faculty member to earn a Lasker Award, following Nobel Laureates Alfred Gilman, M.D., Ph.D., Michael Brown, M.D., and Joseph Goldstein, M.D.
“Dr. Chen’s research has elucidated the process by which our bodies fight off invasive pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and other microbes, through the detection of wayward intracellular nucleic acids. Insights into this signaling pathway provide a foundation for new approaches to the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases as well as vaccine development,” said Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern. “UTSW is delighted that Dr. Chen’s transformative work has been honored by this year’s Lasker Basic Medical Research Award as he embodies the decades-long commitment to basic discovery at this institution.”
Dr. Chen, who received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2019, is one of the world’s leading researchers on innate immunity – the body’s response to pathogens and its ability to quickly identify and destroy cells and tissues that have been attacked. The Chen Lab is broadly interested in mechanisms of signal transduction, namely how a cell communicates with its surroundings and detects harmful or foreign insults.
Dr. Chen’s discoveries include MAVS, the first mitochondrial protein known to be involved in immunity against infections. The protein’s name describes its function (mitochondrial antiviral signaling) and honors his favorite basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks. More recently, he identified cGAS (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase), which senses foreign DNA in a cell’s interior, or cytoplasm. It then activates STING (stimulator of interferon genes) and triggers an inflammatory response, including the production of type 1 interferons, essential for combatting infections and regulating immune responses.
Earlier this week, Dr. Chen was also announced as a recipient of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, Germany’s highest honor in the field of medicine, which he shares with Glen Barber, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Center of Innate Immunity and Inflammation at The Ohio State University, and Andrea Ablasser, M.D., Professor of Food Science at EPFL, the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, for their work on innate immunity.
(Credit: Lasker Foundation)
“I am honored and humbled by these recognitions, which validate the collaborative work of scientists at UT Southwestern and worldwide to expand our understanding of human disease,” said Dr. Chen, who is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UTSW and the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. “I am very grateful to the students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff members in my lab for their hard work and to the leadership at UT Southwestern for their unwavering support. At UT Southwestern, we continue to explore the complex mechanisms of the immune system and how to target the cGAS pathway for the treatment of human diseases.”
Dr. Chen has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He has also received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2023), the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology (2020), the Switzer Prize (2019), the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences (2018), and the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology (2012).
The Lasker Award will be presented in New York on Sept. 27 and the Paul Ehrlich Prize in Frankfurt on March 14, 2025.
Dr. Chen holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. Dr. Podolsky holds the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration and the Charles Cameron Sprague Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 22 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 120,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5 million outpatient visits a year.