2014 Waterman Award

美国国家科学基金会（NSF）宣布张锋为2014年艾伦·沃特曼奖获得者。该奖项是美国国家科学基金会的最高荣誉，每年表彰35岁以下的杰出研究人员，并资助他或她在任何科学或工程领域的研究。张的研究重点是了解大脑是如何工作的。张博士致力于通过创新技术的开发和应用来了解脑细胞的分子机制。他创造并继续完善工具，使研究人员能够精确控制细胞内发生的生物活动。有了这些工具，研究人员可以加深他们对基因组如何工作的理解，以及它如何影响大脑的发育和功能。张还研究了导致疾病的系统内部故障。两种不同的基础研究和技术开发正在帮助他做到这一点：光遗传学和基因组工程。与斯坦福大学的Edward Boyden和Karl deisserth一起，他发明了一套用于解剖脑回路功能组织的技术。光遗传学的成功发展使得对体内神经回路功能的系统研究与前所未有的控制精度成为可能。张用这种方法领导了具有里程碑意义的研究，阐明了唤醒、奖励和电路振荡的神经密码。他还开发了光诱导转录效应物，使大脑和其他组织的转录和表观遗传过程的光遗传学控制成为可能。Zhang还开发了CRISPR基因组编辑系统——即识别和切割疾病背后的短DNA序列，以便将其删除或替换为其他遗传物质。尽管Zhang的主要研究领域是大脑，但CRISPR技术的潜在应用远远超出了神经科学。他是麻省理工学院和哈佛大学博德研究所的11名核心教员之一；麻省理工学院麦戈文大脑研究所的研究员；以及麻省理工学院脑与认知科学系和生物工程系联合任命的w·m·凯克职业发展教授。张因其在光遗传学和基因组编辑方面的开创性工作而得到广泛认可。2012年，他与Karl deisserth和Edward Boyden共同获得了Perl/UNC神经科学奖。2013年，《麻省理工科技评论》（MIT Technology Review）将他评为“先锋”和35岁以下35位创新者之一；《大众科学》杂志将张列入了年度最有前途的科学创新者名单。2013年，《自然》杂志还将他评为“十大重要人物”之一，因为他开发了用于哺乳动物细胞基因组编辑的CRISPR系统。

The National Science Foundation (NSF) named Feng Zhang the 2014 recipient of its Alan T. Waterman Award. This award is NSF's highest honor that annually recognizes an outstanding researcher under the age of 35 and funds his or her research in any field of science or engineering. Zhang's research focuses on understanding how the brain works.Zhang seeks to understand the molecular machinery of brain cells through the development and application of innovative technologies. He created and is continuing to perfect tools that afford researchers precise control over biological activities occurring inside the cell. With these tools, researchers can deepen their understanding of how the genome works, and how it influences the development and function of the brain. Zhang also examines failures within the systems that cause disease.Two different lines of fundamental research and technology development are helping him do that: optogenetics and genome engineering. Along with Edward Boyden and Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University, he invented a set of technologies for dissecting the functional organization of brain circuits, The successful development of optogenetics has enabled the systematic investigation of neural circuit function in vivo with unprecedented precision of control. Zhang used that approach to lead landmark studies that illuminated the neural codes for arousal, reward and circuit oscillation. He also developed light-inducible transcription effectors that enabled optogenetic control of transcription and epigenetic process in the brain and other tissues.Zhang also developed the CRISPR genome editing system--that is, to identify and cut a short DNA sequence underlying a disorder so that it may be deleted or substituted out for other genetic material Although Zhang's main area of focus is the brain, the potential applications of CRISPR technology extend well beyond neuroscience.He is one of 11 core faculty members at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; an investigator at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research; and the W. M. Keck Career Development Professor with a joint appointment in MIT's Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering.Zhang is widely recognized for his pioneering work in optogenetics and genome editing. He shared the Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize with Karl Deisseroth and Edward Boyden in 2012. In 2013, MIT Technology Review recognized him as a "pioneer" and one of its 35 Innovators Under 35; Popular Science magazine placed Zhang on its Brilliant 10, an annual list of the most promising scientific innovators. Nature also named him as one of the "ten people who mattered" in 2013 for his work on developing the CRISPR system for genome editing in mammalian cells.