Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., a professor of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is a winner of the 2026 Japan Prize in Life Sciences. [Video still: UTSW]
Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., a professor of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is receiving the 2026 Japan Prize in Life Sciences, which UTSW known as “one of the highest international honors for science and technology.”
Numerous winners of the Japan Prize have gone on to win the Nobel Prize for his or her achievements—together with, most lately, Shimon Sakaguchi, who obtained the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for locating regulatory T cells.
Chen shares this 12 months’s Japan Prize with Shizuo Akira, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at Osaka University.
Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., proper, a professor of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is a winner of the 2026 Japan Prize in Life Sciences. [Video still: UTSW]
Emperor and Empress of Japan will attend Tokyo ceremonies
The Japan Prize will likely be introduced in Tokyo on April 14, throughout Japan Prize Week, which incorporates award ceremonies attended by the Emperor and Empress of Japan and commemorative lectures by the laureates.
Established in 1983, the Japan Prize is awarded every year to scientists and researchers from around the globe to honor people who’ve contributed considerably to peace and prosperity via unique, glorious achievements which have vastly superior the progress of science and know-how.
“I’m extremely honored and humbled to be selected to receive the Japan Prize,” Chen, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern, mentioned in a press release.
Chen mentioned the popularity “validates the collaborative work of scientists at UT Southwestern and worldwide to expand our understanding of human disease,” including that he’s grateful for “the students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff members in my lab for their hard work and to the leadership at UT Southwestern for their unwavering support.”
More on Chen’s discoveries
Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D. [Photo: UTSW]
Recognized as one of many world’s high researchers on how the physique’s immune system protects towards such threats as micro organism and viruses, Chen obtained the prize for his discoveries in regards to the immune system, together with cyclic GMP-AMP synthase, or cGAS, which “acts as the body’s burglar alarm to trigger defense from invading pathogens,” UTSW mentioned.
“Dr. Chen’s breakthroughs have significantly advanced the field of immunology, paving the way for new approaches to the development of more effective vaccines and novel therapies for a broad range of diseases, including cancer and autoimmune disorders,” mentioned UTSW President Daniel Okay. Podolsky, M.D. “The entire UT Southwestern community takes great pride in seeing the impact of Dr. Chen’s work recognized by this very special high honor.”
Chen’s discoveries have illuminated how the human physique fights off invasive viruses, micro organism, and different microbes. In 2012, his laboratory recognized cGAS, which triggers the innate immune system when it detects international DNA inside a cell. Earlier, he recognized the primary mitochondrial protein identified to be concerned in immunity towards infections, which he dubbed MAVS, describing its perform (mitochondrial antiviral signaling) and honoring his favourite basketball staff, the Dallas Mavericks.
Latest of many honors Chen has obtained
Chen’s analysis has been acknowledged with a number of the highest awards in science, together with the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2025), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2024), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2023), and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019), amongst others. He additionally gained the 2018 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, as we reported at the time.
Chen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom. At UT Southwestern, he’s a part of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, and he holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.
David Seeley contributed to this report.
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