Professor Yuan-Tsong (Y-T) Chen and Mrs. Alice Der-Shan Chen were both originally from Taiwan (Republic of China) and have been committed to biomedical research for over 30 years. They recognise the tremendous impact that genetics and genomics have had on the improvement of health and treatment of diseases and wish to establish the Chen Award to celebrate research accomplishments in Human Genetics and Genomics in Asia Pacific. Professor Chen received his MD degree from National Taiwan University (Republic of China) and a PhD from Columbia University (USA). He is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (Republic of China), and Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Duke University Medical Center (USA).

His translational research leads to the development of now standard therapies for two devastating inherited metabolic diseases: a simple and effective cornstarch therapy for severe hypoglycemia in glycogen storage diseases and an enzyme replacement therapy, the first ever treatment, for a debilitating, progressive and often fatal myopathy called Pompe disease. Professor Chen has also identified the genetic basis of and developed DNA-based diagnosis for several major heritable diseases, and more recently, his team has uncovered genes/SNPs associated with drug-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome and warfarin sensitivity.

His latest pharmacogenomic studies of adverse drug reactions paved the way for personalized medicine by preventing drug toxicity with a gene test. Professor Chen is an elected member of Academia Sinica and of the Academy Sciences for the Developing World.

This award is to celebrate the achievement of a biomedical scientist:

• who has performed extraordinary work in biomedical sciences which has changed the thinking in the human genomics field; and/or
• who has uncovered new insights which brought forth new therapies; and/or
• whose lifetime contribution has significantly impacted the Asia-Pacific region

The award recipient will be given a monetary award of US$10,000 and a plaque or medal. He/She will be invited to attend the award presentation ceremony and present a plenary lecture in conjunction with the annual Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) – Human Genome Meeting.

This award is giving out in recognition of young scientists who have made significant contributions to the field during their early career years (normally within 15 years from the time of receiving his/her highest earned degree, in the year of the award) and:

• who has performed extraordinary work in biomedical sciences which has changed the thinking in the human genomics field; and/or
• who has uncovered new insights which brought forth new therapies; and/or
• whose contributions have significantly impacted the Asia-Pacific region

The award recipient will be given a monetary award of US$5,000 and a plaque. He/She will be invited to attend the award presentation ceremony and present a lecture in conjunction with the annual Human Genome Organization (HUGO) – Human Genome Meeting.

Chen Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetic and Genomic Research

• 2020: Pui Yan Kwok, University of California San Francisco, USA
• 2019: Felix Jin Li, Fudan University, China
• 2018: Aravinda Chakravarti, Johns Hopkins University, USA
• 2017: Narry Kim, Seoul National University, South Korea
• 2016: Bing Ren, University of California San Diego, USA
• 2015: Jung Wang, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), China
• 2014: Edison Liu, The Jackson Laboratory, USA
• 2013: Yoshihide Hayashizaki, RIKEN, Japan
• 2012: John Mattick, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia
• 2011: Yang Huanming, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), China
• 2010: Yusuke Nakamura, University of Tokyo, Japan / Ng Huck Hui, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore
• 2008: Li Wen-Hsiung, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Chen Award of Excellence

• 2020: Billy Li, Stanford University, USA residing outside Asia) / Young Seok Ju, KAIST, South Korea (residing in Asia)
• 2019: Ramanuj Dasgupta, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore (residing in Asia) / Anshul Kundaje, Stanford University, USA (residing outside Asia)
• 2018: Ami Bhatt, Stanford University, USA
• 2016: Feng Zhang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• 2014: Piero Carninci, RIKEN, Japan
• 2013: Patrick Tan, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore
• 2012: Charles Lee, Bringham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, USA
• 2011: Liu Jianjun, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore

The Faculty of Scholars will serve as the Chen Awards Reviewing Committee.

Stylianos Antonarakis

Professor and Chairman, University of Geneva Medical School, Switzerland

Kristen Ardlie

Director, Broad Institute, US

Karen Avraham

Professor, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Walter Bodmer

Professor, University of Oxford, UK

Aravinda Chakravarti

Professor, New York University, US

Alfredo Hidalgo Miranda

Director of Research, INMEGEN, Mexico

Bartha Knoppers

Professor, McGill University, Canada

Tuuli Lappalainen

Professor, New York Genome Center, US

Raj Ramesar

Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Sarah Teichmann

Professor, Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK

David Valle

Professor, Johns Hopkins University, US

Ambroise Wonkam

Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa