September 19, 2024
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen Awarded the 2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen Awarded the 2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for the discovery of the cGAS enzyme that senses foreign and self DNA, solving the mystery of how DNA stimulates immune and inflammatory responses.
Read more about Dr. Chen and the Lasker AwardSeptember 17, 2024
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen will be awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2025
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen will be awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2025, Germany’s highest honor in the field of medicine. The Paul Ehrlich Prize will be presented in Frankfurt on March 14, 2025.
Read more about the announcementSeptember 20, 2023
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen and Glen Barber Awarded Horwitz Prize for Discovering the cGAS-STING Pathway
Chen and Barber are the 112th and 113th winners of the Horwitz Prize, which is awarded annually by Columbia University for groundbreaking work in medical science. Of the 111 previous Horwitz Prize winners, 51 have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes.
Read more about Dr. Chen and the Horowitz PrizeOctober 2022
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen was elected to the National Academy of Medicine
This is placeholder text. If you are reading this, it is here by mistake and we would appreciate it if you could email us with a link to the page you found it on.
Read more about Dr. Chen and NAMSeptember 25, 2020
Chen honored with Coley Award
Dr. Chen, Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research, is being honored with another award for his role in discovering a pathway now being used in the fight against cancer.
Read more about Dr. Chen and the Coley AwardNovember 20, 2019
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen won the 2019 Switzer Prize
Dr. Chen won the 2019 Switzer Prize, which recognizes excellence in basic biological science
Read more about Dr. Chen and the Switzer Prize2019
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen Awarded the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Dr. Chen Awarded the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for elucidating how DNA triggers immune and autoimmune responses from the interior of a cell through the discovery of the DNA-sensing enzyme cGAS.
Read more about Dr. Chen and the Breakthrough PrizeApril 3, 2018
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen Awarded the 2018 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Chen was awarded the 2018 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for discovery of the enzyme cyclic GMP‐AMP synthase (cGAS) and its corresponding pathway, which solved a century-old mystery about DNA.
Read more about Dr. Chen and the Lurie PrizeJanuary 2015
A Paper by Siqi is published in Science
Siqi's paper on phosphorylation of adaptor proteins induces IRF3 phosphorylation was recently published as Science Research Article.
Read Siqi's articleApril, 2014
Zhijian "James" Chen is elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Please join me in congratulating our colleague Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, on his election, which was announced this morning, to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors attainable by a scientist.
Read the letter from President PodoloskyApril, 2014
Functional prions in innate immune signaling
Xin's paper on prion-like polymerization of MAVS and ASC in cell signaling was recently published by Cell.
Read Xin's paperFebruary, 2014
A Paper by Hui Xu is published in eLife
In today's eLife, Hui and colleagues published a paper on MAVS filaments.
Read Hui's paperAugust, 2013
DNA sensor cGAS fends off viral infection
In today's Science Express, a paper by Xiao-Dong Li and Jiaxi Wu demonstrated that cGAS-cGAMP pathway plays pivotal role in antiviral defense and immune adjuvant effects.
Read their paperAugust, 2013
A Paper by Siqi Liu And Jueqi Chen Is Published on eLife
In today's eLife, a paper by Siqi Liu and Jueqi Chen demonstrated that MAVS recruits multiple ubiquitin E3 ligases to activate antiviral signaling cascades.
Read their articleAugust, 2013
A Paper by Daxing Gao Is Published in Science
In today's Science Express, a paper by Daxing Gao demonstrated that cGAS is the immune sensor for HIV and other retroviruses.
Read Daxing's paperJune, 2013
Activation of STING by Endogenous cGAMP
In a paper published online in Molecular Cell on June 3rd, 2013, we report the identification of a cyclic GMP-AMP isomer containing both 2’-5’ and 3’-5’ phosphodiester linkages (2'3'-cGAMP) as the endogenous second messenger generated by the cytosolic DNA sensor cGAS. Further, we solve the crystal structure of STING bound to the cGAS product, which explains the high-affinity interaction between STING and 2’3’-cGAMP, and reveals a ligand-induced conformational change of STING that may underlie its activation. For details see:
Cyclic GMP-AMP Containing Mixed Phosphodiester Linkages Is An Endogenous High-Affinity Ligand for STING
Congratulations to Xu, Heping, Jiaxi, Xuewu, Josh, Chuo, and James!
December, 2012
Two Papers by Lijun Sun and Jiaxi Wu Are Published In Science
Congratulations to Josh, Jiaxi, Fenghe, Xiang, and James!
Read both papersDecember, 2012
Siqi Liu Defended Her Dissertation
Siqi Liu successfully defended her dissertation "Dissection of Cytosolic Antiviral Signaling Pathway" on Dec. 12th, 2012.
She has become Dr. Liu.
Congratulation!
October, 2012
Xiao-Dong Li's Paper Is Published In eLife
Dr. Xiao-Dong Li identified that Toll-like receptor 13 (TLR13) detects a 13-nucleotide specific sequence within the bacterial 23S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and induces interleukin-1b production.
The paper describing these discoveries is published in eLife.
Sequence-specific detection of bacterial 23S ribosomal RNA by TLR13.
Congratulations to Xiao-Dong and James!
July, 2012
Xin Cai Wins HHMI Fellowship
Graduate student Xin Cai was recently awarded a prestigious International Student Research Fellowship by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The fellowship was awarded to 50 graduate students from 19 countries; Xin was one of three UT Southwestern Medical Center students receiving the fellowship.
HHMI AnnouncementFebruary, 2012
Zhijian "James" Chen wins 2012 NAS Award in Molecular Biology
Zhijian "James" Chen was awarded the 2012 National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology. The award recognizes "a recent notable discovery in molecular biology" by an American scientist under the age of 45.
The Academy recognized "his creative use of elegant biochemistry both in elucidating an unsuspected role for polyubiquitin in a kinase signaling cascade important for cancer and immunity and in discovering a novel link between innate immunity and a mitochondrial membrane protein that forms prion-like polymers to trigger antiviral responses."