2020 Final Count: Life Sciences Breakthrough Award Interpretation

December 19, 2020 // --- Every year, a number of important awards are awarded in the field of life sciences and medicine in recognition of scientists who have made important contributions in this field.
including the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, the Rask Prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the MacArthur Genius Award.
In 2020 footsteps are about to go away, 2021 wave coming days, let us 2020 announced the relevant awards for a simple comb, this issue will introduce you to the life sciences breakthrough award, I hope you like.
2021 Life Sciences Breakthrough Awards On September 10, 2020, the San Francisco-Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced the winners of the 2021 Awards in recognition of their amazing breakthroughs in life sciences, basic physics and mathematics.
awards ceremonies are held on site every year, but this year's awards ceremony has been postponed until March 2021 due to the global popularity of COVID-19.
In the field of life sciences, the winners are: 1. Professor David Baker of the Howard Hughes Institute of Medicine (HHMI) at the University of Washington, in recognition of his innovative work in protein design and synthesis; Professor Chinese Ming Dennis Lo, of Chinese University of Hong Kong, recognises the discovery of fetal DNA in the mother, thereby facilitating prenatal screening to avoid the birth of deformed fetuses, and Professor Richard J. Youle of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for clarifying "quality control" ways to remove damaged mitochondrials to prevent Parkinson's disease.
David Baker was born on October 6, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, to an American biochemist and computational biologist who pioneered methods for predicting and designing three-dimensional structures of proteins.
david Baker is currently a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington and an adjunct professor of genomics, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science and physics.
is a fellow at the Howard Hughes Institute of Medicine and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
proteins are a very magical substance in nature, and their existence solves a variety of technical problems.
for example, in nature, they mediat the use of solar energy to create complex molecules, react to small molecules and light, convert chemical gradients into chemical bonds and use chemical energy for work, and so on.
by drawing inspiration from nature's proteins, the David Baker team is dedicated to designing molecules with the same function from scratch.
past, almost all protein design efforts have been limited to modifying protein skeletons that already exist in natural conditions.
, in most cases proteins with the best 3D structure are not found in nature.
this, researchers are developing methods to design a variety of unusually stable protein structures with adjustable geometry for specific applications.
addition, viruses and tumor cells have specific proteins on their surfaces.
, design proteins designed with high affinity and specific binding target proteins can be widely used as therapeutic and diagnostic reagents.
Professor David Baker's lab is committed to developing methods that can be designed with high affinity protein binding and applied to create clinically relevant drugs or diagnostic reagents.
these studies also provide basic knowledge of protein-protein interactions.
, on the other hand, because self-assembled protein materials play a vital role in this.
, researchers led by David Backer are developing new self-assembled nanostructures and using these methods to develop next-generation vaccines and drug delivery tools.
unique advantage of proteins is that they can act as enzymes to catalyz related bio-chemical reactions.
in some reactions that cannot be achieved by chemical means, by artificially designing enzyme molecules, it is hoped that chemical reaction catalysts that cannot react in a natural state will be created.
Professor David Baker is also working to optimize the way proteins are designed to seek the lowest energy amino acid sequences given the constraints.
the force field used to calculate energy, the higher the activity and success rate of the protein in the design.
combined with physic chemistry and analysis of the crystal structure of more than 100,000 proteins can ultimately improve our description of protein energy at the atomic scale.
, Professor David Baker's research also includes the analysis of existing protein structure data to make accurate predictions of unknown protein structure information.
Catherine Dulac, a French-American biologist, and Catherine Dulac, a "cell-determining mechanism of parenting behavior."
france in 1963 and came to the United States in 1991 for postdoctoral research.
Dulac is currently a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University and was dean of the department from 2007 to 2013 and a fellow at the Howard Hughes Institute of Medicine.
her most famous research on molecular biological mechanisms of mammalian olfactory signals, particularly the control of sex-specific behavior by informationals and downstream brain circuits.
based on a new method of screening cDNA libraries from individual neurons and cloning genes from individual neurons, a novel screening strategy has been developed.
previous studies have shown that males and females show significant differences in the behavior of their cubs, a gender confrontation that provides a unique opportunity to explore the nature and function of potential neural circuits.
By using c-fos-induced readings as neuron activity, researchers led by Catherine Dulac determined that neurons expressing glycopeptide in the internal pre-vision region (MPOA) were specifically activated in both male and female parenting behaviors, and showed that their defects led to significant impairment of male parenting responses.
data provide important insights into the mechanisms behind the observed social behaviours of different sexes between men and women and open up new ways to dissect parental behaviour and its role in regulating social experiences.
in addition to parenting behavior, Catherine Dulac focuses on the neural circuit regulation mechanisms behind gender-specific sexual behavior.
professor Dulac made a new assessment of the respective roles of VNOs and major olfactory skins (MOEs) in the behavior of pyrethrin-mediated behavior through genetic operation of the pyrethrean signal transductor system.
found that, contrary to previous thinking, mating behavior in mice did not require VNO activity.
, the MOE signal appears to be necessary to trigger mating behavior in mice.
in a follow-up study, Professor Dulac found that female mice that lacked TRPC2 ( an ion channel specific to expression in VNO and necessary for signal transductivity) exhibited male-specific sexual characteristics, while female sexual behavior showed significant defects.
These data suggest that there are functional neuron circuits in the brains of mice that control specific behaviors of males and females, while in normal women, the nervous system controls the gender characteristics of social behavior by activating female-specific effectors, while suppressing male-related behavioral characteristics.
Yuk-ming Dennis Lo and Yuk-ming Dennis Lo (Chinese: Yu Ming) were born in Hong Kong in 1963 and are currently professors of chemical pathology at Chinese University in Hong Kong, as well as director of the Li Ka-shing Institute of Health Sciences and a member of the Royal Society.
in 1983, Professor Yu studied at Cambridge University and completed a preclinical degree before entering Oxford University for clinical training.
later received his Ph.D. from Oxford University.
's study of prenatal diagnosis began with an understanding of a new way to detect small amounts of DNA through polymerase chain reaction (PCE).
a research paper at the time described the dna testing of tumors in the plasma.
questioned whether it was possible to test fetal DNA from the pregnant mother's blood.
1989, he published results that showed fetal DNA did exist, but in small quantities.
, however, in 1997, Professor Nguyen successfully tested fetal DNA in the blood plasma of pregnant mothers by using male chromosomes as markers.
findings provide a safer way for prenatal diagnosis of fetal dysplies.
2011, he developed a sequencing-based technique that can determine the sex of a fetus earlier than ultrasound.
the technology, doctors can use RNA rather than DNA to detect the risk of an unborn child developing Down's syndrome, significantly reducing the chance of miscarriage compared to previous ones.
Professor Richard J. Youle and Richard J. Youle, who received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, have been working at NIH since 1978.
years, his research has covered a variety of directions, including immunology for bone marrow transplants, treatment of brain tumors, and programmed cell death.
has trained dozens of scientists, published more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles, and obtained 16 patents.
, about half a million Americans have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and the NIH team led by Professor Youle is working on how genetic mutations cause Parkinson's disease.
Youle's findings shed light on the ability of certain disease-caused mutations in the PINK1 and Parkin genes to damage the brain.
results suggest that the mutation may be related to damage to the way brain cells process damaged mitochondrials.
findings not only help researchers understand the role of genes in healthy and diseased brains, but also explore new treatments for Parkinson's disease and other diseases associated with mitochondrial damage.
breakthrough award, known as the "Oscars of the scientific community", honors the world's top scientists.
prizes of $3 million each are awarded to the life sciences (up to 4 per year), basic physics (1 per year) and mathematics (1 per year).
addition, up to three New Horizons Prizes in Physics, up to three New Horizons Prizes in Mathematics and up to three Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontier Awards are awarded annually to early career researchers.
will attend the awards ceremony to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists.
Breakthrough Awards were co-founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki.
the award is sponsored by individual foundations established by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Jack Ma, etc.
select the winners by a committee composed of past Breakthrough Award winners in various fields.
year, the Breakthrough Prize awarded a total of $18.75 million to support scientists in basic research.
2012, the award has been awarded to nearly 3,000 leading scientists for more than $250 million.
the award is designed to help science leaders move forward on financial constraints, focusing on making the most of ideas to transform the world, raising the importance of basic science and mathematics, and inspiring the next generation of researchers to build on them.
（ Bioon.com）