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Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Feng Zhang

Feng Zhang

2018 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

Cambridge, MA

Title

Professor of neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Area(s) of Research

Molecular biology; neuroscience; genome editing

Education

Stanford University (PhD);
Harvard College (AB)

Country of Birth

China

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biochemistry biomedical science Cas13 Cas9 china CRISPR genetics genome genome-editing MIT molecular biology
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Born in China’s Hebei province, Feng Zhang immigrated with his parents at age 11 to Des Moines, where his interest in biology was piqued during a screening of Jurassic Park in middle school. The film’s premise — that dinosaurs are resurrected from DNA fragments — gained hold over his imagination. He volunteered at a gene therapy lab through an after-school program, where he picked up molecular biology skills quickly.

Feng Zhang with a student in his lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

He majored in chemistry and physics at Harvard; inspired by a classmate’s depression-induced dropout, he resolved to study neuroscience, and enrolled in graduate school at Stanford. There, he worked in “optogenetics,” which uses light to control the activities of brain cells in living animals. Zhang engineered light-sensitive proteins into the neurons of freely moving mice — allowing neuroscientists to map circuits underlying normal brain functions and study dysfunctions in animals.

Zhang then returned to the Harvard Society of Fellows, where he attempted to edit the genomes of mammalian cells with the aim of engineering them. e succeeded, but realized the proteins he used were too cumbersome for widespread application. So Zhang began working with CRISPR-Cas9 — a natural genetic toolkit that some bacteria use to fend off invading viruses — eventually using it to successfully edit the genomes of living mouse and human cells.

Feng Zhang at a bench in his lab

It was a landmark in molecular biology. Today, thousands of researchers use this molecular scalpel to edit DNA; the method can be used to treat muscular dystrophy and glaucoma in mice, render human cells grown in lab dishes resistant to HIV, and help create food crops and livestock with desirable traits.

Zhang and his team continue to improve and expand CRISPR-mediated genome editing, and Zhang continues to apply his gift for molecular biology and penchant for neuroscience toward studying the molecular underpinnings of neuropsychiatric diseases.

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Keio Medical Science Prize (2018)
  • National Academy of Sciences (2018)
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2018)
  • Lemelson-MIT Prize (2017)
  • Albany Medical Center Prize (2017)
  • Gairdner Foundation International Award (2016)
  • Tang Prize (2016)
  • Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award (2015)
  • Alan T. Waterman Award (2014)
  • Gabbay Award (2014)
  • NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2012)
  • Perl-UNC Prize (2011)

Related Prize Recipients

2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Martin Jonikas

Born in France
Martin Jonikas receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for molecular studies on Chlamydomonas, a model photosynthetic organism, with long-term implications for improving food-crop yield and combating climate change.
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2019 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Amit Choudhary

Born in India
Amit Choudhary receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the identification of a fundamental force integral to the structures of biomolecules like proteins and DNA, and for improvements upon the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.
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2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Kivanç Birsoy

Born in Turkey
Kıvanç Birsoy receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing cutting-edge tools to unravel the altered metabolism of cancer cells and uncovering molecular targets for treatment.
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