The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced today that Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Zhijian “James” Chen of UT Southwestern Medical Center has won the 2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. Chen was honored for his discovery of the cGAS enzyme, which plays a direct role in how DNA stimulates immune and inflammatory responses. 

Established in 1945 by Mary and Albert Lasker, pioneering biomedical research advocates, the Lasker Awards are widely regarded as America’s preeminent biomedical research prize. The awards recognize the contributions of leaders who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of human disease. 

Chen’s research into complex cellular biochemistry has led to the discovery of pathways and proteins that trigger immune and stress responses. Chen and his lab have identified proteins, such as the mitochondrial protein MAVS, that are crucial to the body’s defense against RNA viruses such as influenza and Ebola.

More recently, Chen’s focus has turned to cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthase, or cGAS, a novel DNA sensor that he and his lab discovered in 2012. 

cGAS floats in the cytoplasm of cells and switches on when it encounters DNA. Since a cell’s own genes are contained in its nucleus and mitochondria, DNA in the cytoplasm is a signal that something is amiss – usually, that a pathogen is present. cGAS responds by generating cGAMP, a messenger molecule that calls on the body’s first line of defense – the innate immune system – to counter the suspected threat. This, in turn, activates STING (stimulator of interferon genes), triggering an inflammatory response that includes the production of Type 1 interferons, which are essential for combatting infections and regulating the body’s immune response. 

Chen and his group’s findings lay the foundation for potential new methods to treat autoimmune diseases by chemically inhibiting cGAS. Further, cGAMP and its derivatives could one day be used as adjuvants for vaccines and cancer immunotherapies. 

Earlier this week, Chen was also named a recipient of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, Germany’s most prestigious award in the field of medicine. Chen was honored for his work on innate immunity, along with Glen Barber of the Ohio State University, and Andrea Ablasser of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. 

A member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, Chen also previously received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, among other honors. 

HHMI Investigator Emeriti Joel Habener of Massachusetts General Hospital was also honored by the Lasker Foundation as a recipient of the 2024 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. Habener will receive the honor along with Lotte Bjerre Knudsen of Novo Nordisk and Svetlana Mojsov of the Rockefeller University. Habener, Knudsen, and Mojsov were recognized for their discovery and development of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-based drugs that have had a significant impact on fighting obesity.

The Lasker Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York City on September 27, 2024.