2020 Final Count: MacArthur Genius Award Interpretation

December 20, 2020 // --- Every year, in the field of life sciences and medicine, a number of important awards are awarded 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.
The footsteps of 2020 are coming, and in the days of 2021, let's briefly comb through the relevant awards announced in 2020, and this issue will introduce you to the MacArthur Genius Award, which we hope you enjoy.
2020 MacArthur Prize for Genius, the MacArthur Foundation announced the winners of the 2020 MacArthur Fellows Award.
21 outstanding people have been awarded this year, including four scientists working in the life sciences.
they are Professor Damien Fair, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Nels Elde from the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah, Polina V. Lishko, a cell developmental biologist from the University of California, Berkeley, and Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost, a biochemist from Princeton University.
Damien Fair has won the MacArthur Genius Award 2020 for designing network connectivity maps in the brain to deepen our understanding of how different regions communicate and develop in typical and atypical situations.
Fair combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), advanced mathematical techniques, and expertise in psychology and neuroscience to study the connections of the resting brain - the inner or spontaneous neural activity of the brain.
Fair is able to see more precisely how different regions of the brain communicate with each other and how it evolves at different stages of development, from infancy to adolescence.
he uses graphs to map the connections and the strength of those connections when the brain is still.
he has also aroused interest in personality or mapping of individual brains.
these "connected" or "functional fingerprints" significantly improve the previous typical model, which used aggregated data from multiple people to build typical and atypical brain connectivity.
fingerprint map can also improve understanding of atypical developments, such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
, psychopathological causal models have traditionally focused on identifying individual core dysfunctions, but such models have failed to explain significant differences in brain function and behavior across the population.
and partners are working to build computational models to identify subgroups of ADHD and ASD performance with unique causal pathways.
this work has the potential to provide reference for the design of more personalized treatment options.
recently, Fair is studying the effects of early life environmental influences (such as maternal stress, inflammation or depression) and childhood experiences (such as exercise, sleep habits, and social media) on people's networks of still states.
findings are important for developmental psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists to think about brain development and how we can prevent emerging psychiatry throughout its life cycle.
all of this requires accurate measurements of functional and structural MRIs for children.
Received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Augusta in 1998, a Master of Medicine degree from Yale University School of Medicine in 2001 and a Ph.D. from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2008.
. Fair worked at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) from 2008 to 2020.
2020, he joined the University of Minnesota as director of the Institute for Brain Development.
he was "Young Participation in Science (YES!) Co-founder and co-founder of NOSImaging Inc., inc., which developed FIMM software for clinical use.
, Dr. Fair has published a series of peer-reviewed articles, including Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, Neuron, JAMA Pty, Biology, and others.
Professor Nels Elde, the evolutionary mechanism of Nels Elde's interaction with "host-pathogens," received this year's MacArthur Genius Award for his work in studying the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary processes that drive host-pathogen interactions.
Nels Elde is an evolutionary geneticist who studies the interactions between hosts and pathogens and the evolutionary processes that enable organisms to better attack others or protect themselves.
conflict between the host and the pathogen is similar to an "arms race" back and forth, as the host gained enhanced immune defenses, frustrating attacks by microorganisms and viruses, while pathogens were better able to evade the same defenses.
retrospective analysis of the evolutionary history of natural events and the evolution of microbial experiments in the laboratory, Professor Elde has identified several molecular mechanisms that drive the rapid evolution of host and pathogen functional adaptability. in his early work,
demonstrated that the pox virus (a double-stranded DNA virus, such as pox seedlings, smallpox vaccine) destroys the immune response of its mammalian host by expanding the genetic sequence of the viral protein, thereby losing the host's own immunity.
ability to expand or shrink gene sequences (known as the "gene accordion" by Elde) allows viruses to evolve rapidly in response to changes in host defenses.
Elde observed an example of an active and sustained evolutionary interaction between the host (ape) and the pathogen (Haemophilus influenzae).
The host produces ferritin, an iron transport protein, to provide cells and iron to keep it away from pathogens called nutritional immunity, and in response, Haemophilus influenzae produces a surface protein that binds to ferritin and removes iron from its host organism to promote infection.
Elde team's research suggests that in the face of the evolution of bacterial proteins, transhegrin sequences in apes evolve rapidly to escape iron removal, a finding that promises to help develop more effective treatments for bacterial infections.
recently, Elde revealed the transsectoral factors of gene sequences in the mammalian genome (which can also be used as a means of spreading regulatory sequences throughout the genome and promoting the evolution of the immune system).
potential impact of Elde's work is widespread, from a better understanding of the host's transition to identifying treatable targets in bacteria and viruses to treat emerging infectious diseases.
1995, Nels Elde received a bachelor's degree from Carlton College and a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 2005.
served as a postdoctoral fellow at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from 2005 to 2011.
joined the University of Utah in 2011 and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Human Genetics.
his research was published in journals such as Cell Science.
Polina V. Lishko and Professor Polina V. Lishko of mammalian fertilized cell processes received this year's MacArthur Genius Award for their contribution to examining and guiding the cellular processes of mammalian fertilization and opening up new avenues for contraceptive and infertility treatment.
V. Lishko is a cell biology and developmental biologist who studies the molecular mechanisms that guide mammalian fertilization.
Through a series of genomic, bio-chemical and physiological analyses,
sheds light on the cellular processes that regulate sperm cell movement through the development of the female reproductive tract and top body (a cell device that enables sperm to penetrate the protective layer of the egg) and ultimately lead to cell fusion.
Although it has been known that these functions depend on the regulation of potentials on the membranes of sperm cells, studies of the cell ion channels that mediate these potentials (proteins that allow charged molecules to enter or move out of cells) have not been clearly revealed.
Lishko has developed electrophysiological methods for sperm pliers cells that can be used in sperm cells of any mammalian species, allowing for rigorous study of how cell ion channels respond to chemical and mechanical signals in the female reproductive tract.
Lishko and her co-researchers found that nalmore-concentration progesterone interacts with a protein called ABHD2 to activate the CatSper calcium ion channel, which then enters the sperm to trigger fertilization events.
work, Lishko found that steroids from two steroid plant sources (yew alcohol and feather fan phenol) inhibited the CatSper ion channel, thus avoiding sperm over-activeness.
, both inhibitors prevent fertilization and may serve as a prototype for the pill.
recently, she has shown that the sperm progesterone-like protein ABHD2 is highly expressed in mammalian ovaries and plays a new regulatory role in female sexual cycles and reproduction.
Lishko is improving understanding of mammalian fertilization and opening up new ways to treat human infertility and to develop male-only or male-female contraceptives.
1996, Polina V. Lishko received a bachelor's degree from Taras Shevchenko State University in Kiev and a doctorate from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2000.
, Lishko worked in postdoctoral research at Harvard University and was a lecturer at the University of California, San Francisco from 2006 to 2011.
lishko joined the University of California, Berkeley, in 2012 and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.
articles were published in cell, Science, Nature, PNAS and other journals.
Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost and Professor Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost won this year's MacAs Genius Award for their work in the synthesis of new molecules with therapeutic properties and accelerating the discovery of new antibiotics.
Seyedsayamdost is a biochemist who studies the synthesis of new small molecules with biological activity or therapeutic properties.
nearly 70 per cent of antibiotics used clinically, such as penicillin, are natural or natural product derivatives produced through biosynthetic pathways in bacteria and fungi.
or secondary metabolites that use most of these pathways are synthesized only under certain conditions, which are difficult to replicate in typical laboratory cultures.
Using a commercialized library of small molecules (usually known antibiotics), Seyedsayamdost developed a method called HiTES (high-volume screening agent screening), which quickly activates otherwise silent secondary metabolic pathways to produce corresponding natural products.
then, he used a range of methods, including MRI spectroscopy, computational and analytical chemistry, and imaging mass spectrometization, to analyze and personalisate the structure (and potential uses) of these complex natural products.
Seyedsayamdost also found novel natural compounds in symbic interactions, which are commonly found in a wide range of micro-biodiversity environments.
, for example, he identified mechanisms for ocean roseh rosehide bacteria to interact with microalgae using natural products.
this interaction is usually beneficial.
, however, when microalgae begin to degrade, hidden clusters of genes in bacteria trigger the synthesis of toxic secondary metabolites, killing microalgae and ensuring the survival of bacteria.
these and other studies, his team found various molecular structures with different bond patterns, suggesting a rich variety of bio-chemical pathways that may be useful in the production of other compounds.
in recent work, Seyedsayamdost has clarified the formation of molecular in-associations to give vancomycin a unique structural and biologically active characteristic (vancomycin is an antibiotic against persistent infection).
he has also developed a synthetic/enzyme-linked approach to speed up the discovery of antibiotics similar to vancomycin, which are effective against wancomycin-resistant infections.
With the emergence of new infectious diseases and the resistance of pathogens to our current antibiotic treatment, Seyedsayamdost's research is expanding the toolbox available to synthetic organic chemists and opening up new channels for the discovery of previously unknown biochemical compounds that may have therapeutic effects.
Seyedsayamdost received a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 2001 and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008.
joined Princeton University in 2013, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry.
Seyedsayamdost's research has been published in journals such as Nature Chemistry, Nature Chemical Biology, Journal of The American Chemical Society, PNAS and mBio.
（ Bioon.com）