Professor Nieng Yan Won Protein Science Young Investigator Award

2015 Young Investigator Award winner Nieng Yan, Tsinghua University

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award recognizes a scientist in the first 8 years of an independent career who has made an important contribution to the study of proteins.

The 2015 Protein Science Young Investigator Award recipient is Dr. Nieng Yan (School of Medicine at Tsinghua University). Dr. Yan’s independent track record of accomplishment in membrane protein (and other) structural biology spans less than a decade but is nothingless than stunning.  She has contributed a number of important crystal structures of transporters, including the landmark human GLUT1. Her impact extends into the ion channels field, where she had contributed major structures of sodium channels. Most recently, she has used new-generation EM methods to determine a high resolution structure of the ryanodine receptor. Her work is characterized not only by the pursuit of targets that can be described as “high hanging fruit”, but also by being thoroughly anchored by focusing on how protein structural information can be employed to illuminate protein function and related biology.

 Nieng Yan and her student

AWARD HISTORY (FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE IRVING SIGAL YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD)

Past recipients of the award include: M. Madan Babu (2014),Feng Shao (2013), Mei Hong & Tarun M. Kapoor (2012), Shu-ou Shan (2011), Charalampos Kalodimos (2010), Virginia Cornish (2009), Jamie Doudna Cate (2008), Benjamin Cravatt (2007), Vijay Pande (2006), Thomas Muir (2005), Erin O’Shea and Jonathan Weissman (2004), Yigong Shi (2003), Carolyn Bertozzi (2002), Kevan Shokat (2001), David Baker (2000), Jeffery Kelly (1999), Nikola Pavletich (1998), John Kuriyan (1997), Michael Summers (1996), Stuart Schreiber (1995), Peter Kim (1994), Ad Bax and Marius Clore (1993), Peter Schultz (1992), Carl Pabo (1991), Rachel Klevit (1990), and William DeGrado (1989).

The 2015 awards will be presented at the 29th Annual Symposium of The Protein Society in Barcelona, Spain (July 22-25, 2015).

Report from http://www.proteinsociety.org/protein-society-awards/young-investigator-award/