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A coveted research award that amount with a $ 250,000 plunder is lead to a scientist who helped reveal a protein ’s character in the human trunk ’s immune defenses .
BiochemistZhijian " James " Chen , director of the Inflammation Research Center and a prof of molecular biota at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center , has won one of this year ’s Lasker Awards — biomedical - research award often called the " American Nobels . "
Zhijian “James” Chen has snagged a prestigious award for basic research.
Chen led work that result in the discovery of a vital enzyme — cyclic GMP - AMP synthase ( cGAS ) — that acts like a fire warning gadget in the body . But instead of being tripped by smoke , cGAS activate in response to the DNA of strange invaders , such as viruses and bacteria . Prior to the uncovering of cGAS , scientists did n’t know how this desoxyribonucleic acid set off theinnate immune system , the body ’s first line of defense against foreign meat .
Ilya Mechnikov , who won a Nobel in 1908 , discovered phagocytosis , a phenomenon in which one cell gobbles up another . This is one path that immune cells rid the body of disease - causing bacterium . In his Nobel lecture , Mechnikov noted that bacterial desoxyribonucleic acid somehow come alive a " protective USA of phagocytes " in the body — but at the time , no one know how .
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Chen leads a lab that studies how cells communicate with their surroundings and within themselves.
late research , conducted in the early 2000s , revealed that injecting cell withDNAdrove a spike ininterferons , immune signals that help stop infections . scientist then uncover a radical of cistron that enables the production of these interferon , which they dubbed " stimulator of interferon gene " ( STING ) . STING does not directly sense strange deoxyribonucleic acid , but the DNA somehow activate STING nonetheless .
Starting with apaper published in 2012 , Chen and his partner lastly start out filling in the missing links in this chain of events . The first is cyclic GMP - AMP ( cGAMP ) , a particle that switches on STING when alien desoxyribonucleic acid lurks in cells . The second is cGAS , the enzyme that start the cells of mammalian — including man — to make cGAMP .
In the body ’s early admonition system , cGAS is the alarm itself , which detects alien DNA and calls in reinforcement in the form of cGAMP . In turn , cGAMP recruits the " flaming brigade " — which in this case is the unlearned immune system , including the cells that gobble up invaders .
Chen leads a lab that studies how cells communicate with their surroundings and within themselves.
Chen ’s grouping later acquire that this arrangement detects not only deoxyribonucleic acid but also retroviruses , the group of virus to which HIV belongs . These viruses containRNA , a genetic cousin to DNA . HIV is a professional of evasion when it come to dodging the innate immune system — but when the virus is detected , it ’s cGAS that espy it .
Unfortunately , the cGAS alarm system is n’t always helpful ; in the circumstance of some disease , it can go haywire .
cGAS plays a function inautoimmune disease , in which the resistant system mistakenly snipe the organic structure . cGAS detect DNA floating around in the fluid of a cell , which is normally a sign of contagion . Our own human DNA is typically packaged neatly in compartments called the nucleus and mitochondria — but when a cell falls under stress , thatDNA can leak out out and end up elsewherein the cell .
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We have enzymes to help break down that escape desoxyribonucleic acid , but in some mass , these enzyme do n’t work well . And this lack , Chen and fellow have found , can end up activate the cGAS alarm system . This hints that cGAS could be primal to draw rein in these harmful immune responses .
" cGAS has been implicated not only in autoimmune conditions , but in legion instigative illnesses , include age - link up macular devolution and neurologic disorders such as Parkinson ’s disease , Alzheimer disease , and amyotrophic lateral induration , " the Lasker Award grantee spell in a statement . " Calming the cGAS - cGAMP - STING footpath might therefore provide welfare across a broad pair of ailments . "
Chen was awarded the2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award .
Two other Lasker Awards were awarded this year — one for clinical enquiry and one for public service . The first went toJoel Habener , Lotte Bjerre Knudsen and Svetlana Mojsovfor their find and development of drug that mimic the endocrine glucagon - same peptide 1 , such as Ozempic , for obesity discussion . The 2d went toQuarraisha Abdool Karim and Dr. Salim Abdool Karim , whose study has beeninstrumental in forbid and care for HIV .
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