FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Raluca Cadar
The Protein Society
Phone: (844) 377-6834
E-mail: rcadar@proteinsociety.org
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Protein Society, the premier international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2025 Protein Society Awards, which will be recognized at the 39th Annual Symposium, June 26 – 29, 2025, in San Francisco, USA. Plenary talks from award recipients will take place throughout the 3.5-day event. The winners’ scientific accomplishments, described by their nominators below, demonstrate their profound impact on protein science.
The Christian B. Anfinsen Award, sponsored by The Protein Society, recognizes technological achievement or significant methodological advances in the field of protein science. The 2025 award winner is Professor Jan Steyaert (Vrije Universiteit Brussel and VIB). Dr. Steyaert is a leading scientist in the field of nanobody technology. His pioneering contributions to the application of nanobodies as scaffolds to lock dynamic proteins into defined functional conformations has allowed the elucidation of the structure and working mechanisms of highly significant proteins such as G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).
The Carl Brändén Award, sponsored by Rigaku Corporation, honors an outstanding protein scientist who has also made exceptional contributions in the areas of education and/or service to the field. The 2025 award winner is Professor James Fraser (University of California, San Francisco). Dr. Fraser established room temperature X-ray data collection techniques and ensemble modeling methods to study, engineer, and inhibit proteins. His contributions span research, education and service, including through collaborative project-based learning and advocacy for increased accessibility in publishing.
The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award, sponsored by Rigaku Corporation, is granted in recognition of exceptional contributions in protein science that profoundly influence our understanding of biology. The 2025 award winner is Professor Andy LiWang (University of California, Merced). Dr. LiWang is an exceptional scientist and champion of biochemistry in shedding light on the mechanisms that underlie circadian biology. His elegant and rigorous work has led to a near atomic-level understanding of the cyanobacterial circadian clock, the most ancient biological timekeeping system that we know of. He has figured out how proteins – and hence cells – can tell time.
The Marie Maynard Daly Award, the newest award sponsored by The Protein Society, recognizes groundbreaking research at the interface between protein science and human health. The 2025 award winner is Professor Yuh Min Chook (UT Southwestern Medical Center). Dr. Chook is an international leader in biophysical studies of nucleo-cytoplasmic transport. Her studies of the fundamental biophysics and biochemistry of nucleo-cytoplasmic transport led to identification and ultimately FDA approval of a first-in-class drug for treatment of cancer.
The Emil Thomas Kaiser Award, sponsored by generous individual contributions, recognizes a recent, highly-significant contribution to the application of chemistry in the study of proteins. The 2025 award winner is Dr. Brian Kuhlman (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Dr. Kuhlman is a pioneer in protein structural modeling and de novo protein design. He created the design module in Rosetta and described the first applications to making novel proteins. Further recent contributions include applications of deep learning to not only protein design and structure prediction, but also to predicting stability and the energetics of amino acid substitutions in proteins.
The Hans Neurath Award, sponsored by the Hans Neurath Foundation, honors individuals who have made a recent contribution of exceptional merit to basic protein research. The 2025 award winner is Professor Antonina Roll Mecak (NIH - NINDS). Dr. Roll-Mecak’s work focuses on microtubules, highly- -dynamic non-covalent protein polymers that support life in all eukaryotic cells. Dr. Roll-Mecak has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of their dynamic properties through her pioneering work on the tubulin code, and through her discovery of microtubule nanodamage and repair catalyzed by severing enzymes.
The Stein & Moore Award, sponsored by The Protein Society and with support from Wiley, is named for Nobel laureates Dr. William Stein and Dr. Stanford Moore. The award recognizes eminent leaders in protein science who have made sustained, high-impact research contributions to the field. The 2025 recipient is Professor Timothy Springer (Harvard Medical School). Dr. Springer was the first to discover that T-cell antigen-specific responses require cell-recognition receptors. His fundamental research has also paved the way to developing first therapeutics directed to cell-recognition molecules – an LFA-3 ectodomain-Fc fusion (Amevive), an LFA-1 antibody (Raptiva) for psoriasis, and an integrin α4β7 antibody (Entyvio) for ulcerative colitis.
The Protein Science Young Investigator Award, sponsored by Wiley, recognizes scientists within their first 8 years of an independent career at the time of nomination who have made an important contribution to the study of proteins. In 2025, there are two award recipients: Professor Christopher Barnes (Stanford University) and Professor Jamie Spangler (Johns Hopkins University).
Dr. Christopher Barnes is a trailblazer in bringing cutting-edge structural biology tools to bear on complex immunological problems to change how we understand and treat infectious diseases. His work on structures and mechanisms of antibody-antigen interactions has led to clinical breakthroughs and a universal blueprint for successful vaccines and antibody therapies.
Dr. Jamie Spangler is a pioneering investigator in protein engineering who is defining the field of molecular immunoengineering, by designing new technologies to interrogate and manipulate the immune system at the level of proteins. She is developing and leveraging cutting-edge tools to elucidate molecular mechanisms underlying immune activity and engineer new categories of protein therapeutics.
Delegates, exhibitors, sponsors, and the press can learn more about the 39th Annual Symposium on The Protein Society website http://www.proteinsociety.org.
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The Protein Society is the leading international Society devoted to furthering research and development in protein science. Founded in 1986, the purpose of the Society is to provide international forums to facilitate communication, cooperation, and collaboration regarding all aspects of the study of proteins. In support of these goals, the Society publishes Protein Science, the premier journal in the field, hosts an annual international symposium, and facilitates the education of early-career protein scientists across all lines of the discipline. Members of The Protein Society represent a wide spectrum of academic, industry, governmental, and non-profit institutions from more than 40 countries around the world. Media inquiries can be directed to Raluca Cadar, Chief Executive Officer at 844.377.6834.