2014 Waterman Award

美国国家科学基金会(NSF)提名张峰为2014年艾伦·T·沃特曼奖获得者。该奖项是NSF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。张试图通过创新技术的开发和应用来了解脑细胞的分子机制。他创造了并将继续完善工具，为研究人员提供对细胞内发生的生物活动的精确控制。有了这些工具，研究人员可以加深对基因组如何工作，以及它如何影响大脑的发育和功能的理解。张还研究了导致疾病的系统内的故障。两条不同的基础研究和技术发展线帮助他做到了这一点：光遗传学和基因组工程。与斯坦福大学的Edward Boyden和Karl Deisseroth一起，他发明了一套解剖大脑回路功能组织的技术，光遗传学的成功发展使人们能够以前所未有的精确度对活体神经回路功能进行系统研究。张使用这种方法领导了里程碑式的研究，阐明了唤醒、奖励和电路振荡的神经代码。他还开发了光诱导转录效应器，实现了对大脑和其他组织中转录和表观遗传过程的光遗传控制。张还开发了CRISPR基因组编辑系统--即识别和切割一段短DNA序列，以便删除或替代其他遗传物质。尽管张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脑研究所的研究员；以及W.M.Keck职业发展教授，在麻省理工学院的脑科学、认知科学和生物工程系担任联合教授。张因其在光遗传学和基因组编辑方面的开创性工作而广受认可。2012年，他与卡尔·戴瑟罗斯和爱德华·博伊登分享了Perl/UNC神经科学奖。2013年，《麻省理工学院技术评论》表彰张是35岁以下的35位创新者之一，被《麻省理工学院科技评论》表彰；《大众科学》杂志将张列入了年度最有前途科学创新者排行榜的辉煌十大榜单。《自然》杂志还将他评为2013年度十大重要人物之一，以表彰他在开发用于哺乳动物细胞基因组编辑的CRISPR系统方面的工作。

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.