AsianScientist (Dec. 12, 2013) – Dr. Junying Yuan, a pioneer and leading researcher in the field of cell death at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has received an Agilent Thought Leader Award in recognition of her research into neurodegenerative diseases.
The Agilent Thought Leader Award promotes fundamental scientific advances by contributing financial support, products and expertise to the research of influential thought leaders in the life sciences and chemical analysis space.
Dr. Yuan heads the Chinese Academy of Science’s newly established Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry.
“Integrating our metabolomics data with transcriptomic and proteomic data will allow us to better study disease pathogenesis by more fully understanding underlying disease biology,” said Dr. Yuan. “Our aim is to identify five to 10 protein targets or biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases within the next three years.”
Dr. Yuan and her team use a metabolomics-based approach to studying neurodegenerative diseases. Her research has uncovered many significant distinctions in the multiple cell death mechanisms, including programmed cell death (apoptosis) and necroptosis elicited by external factors such as infection, toxins or trauma (necrosis). Her recent work focuses on the identification of necrostatins, a family of small molecule inhibitors of necroptosis, which is a regulated necrotic cell death mechanism.
Dr. Yuan also holds a professorship in cell biology at Harvard University in the US and has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science.
She serves as senior editor of the Journal of Cell Biology and the Journal of Cell Death & Disease and holds 12 U.S. patents. Dr. Yuan’s research has received the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award and the Innovator’s Award for Breast Cancer Research.
“Researchers using an integrated approach to the study of biology are gaining significant insights into the complex interactions between genes, proteins and metabolites, which are accelerating the discovery of new therapies to treat serious neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,” said Patrick Kaltenbach, Agilent’s vice president and general manager of the LC/MS business. “We are honored to support Dr. Yuan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in their pioneering research in this area.”
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Source: Agilent Technologies.
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