Awards

Gong Cheng of Tsinghua University in China will develop a glycan formula as a diet additive that specifically inhibits the lectin-based viral receptors in mosquitos, thereby providing a practical approach against dissemination of multiple mosquito-borne viruses.

Xu Tan of Tsinghua University in China will harness the genome-editing power of the CRISPR-Cas9 system to eliminate latent HIV infection and provide a proof-of-concept for a potential cure for HIV infection.

Qi Zhang of Tsinghua University in China will identify and characterize antibody germline precursors of broadly neutralizing monocolocal antibodies (bnmAbs) with the ultimate goal to design an HIV-1 vaccine candidate able to stimulate the precursors to develop into protective antibodies in healthy individuals.

Yu Rao of Tsinghua University in China will develop safe and potent covalent drugs (irreversible inhibitors) against multi-drug-resistant bacteria (MDR bacteria) and elucidate their molecular mechanisms with chemical probes.

Shan Feng of Tsinghua University in China will develop a novel reagent called DCAF to eliminate antibody-dependence-enhanced (ADE) Dengue virus infection. DCAF stands for Dual-functional Conjugate of Antigenic peptide and Fc-III tag, which is designed for the blocking of cross-reactive antibodies that can enhance secondary infection of Dengue virus. In the current phase, they will synthesize a group of DCAF molecules to test their binding affinities with the antibodies of Dengue virus 2 and to evaluate whether these molecules can be used to block the ADE process.

Xue Liu of Tsinghua University in China will identify antibacterial small molecules against the ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) by screening compound libraries that contain compounds with novel chemical scaffolds. They will then use the identified antibacterials as probes to find new targets for antibiotic development. The current data include the discovery of two bacteriocidal compounds with novel scaffold structures.

Javid, Zhu, and colleagues of Tsinghua University in China have developed a strategy to isolate phenotypically-resistant mycobacteria. They will therefore be able to identify small molecules that are specific for this subpopulation as opposed to the bulk tuberculosis population, which may in turn identify pathways to accelerate TB therapy.

Ye Xiang of Tsinghua University in China will study enveloped virus glycoprotein structures as a means to better understand the mechanisms by which enveloped viruses infect their hosts. The results obtained will contribute to the general knowledge of enveloped virus infection and maturation in addition to providing important information for vaccine and viral drug design for enveloped viruses such as HIV.

Xinquan Wang of Tsinghua University in China will study the molecular mechanism of MERS-CoV neutralizing antibodies (MERS-4 and MERS-27) and further increase their potency by combining structural, biochemical, and virological methods.

Kaixia Mi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China will identify biomarkers that define the diagnosis and status of tuberculosis infection.