We are pleased to announce that on May 9 2017, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) declared Dr. Ling-Ling Chen as a winner of the International Research Scholar Program, which is a notable accomplishment as there are only 41 winners from 16 countries. Dr. Chen who works at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIBCB, CAS) was selected from nearly 1,500 applicants. Dr. Chen holds a PhD and an MBA degree from the University of Connecticut. Throughout Dr. Chen’s impressive career, she has won several prestigious awards, including the Young Investigator Award of Chinese Biological Investigators Society and the L’Oréal Women in Science. As a recipient of the HHMI award she will receive a research grant of $650,000 through a five-year period, which will allow her to further her research and develop innovative projects.
The International Research Scholar Program was created through a partnership between HHMI and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the Welcome Trust and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The initiative builds on HHMI’s International Early Career Scientists program, which is intended to further enhance the work of promising scientists within the early stages of their career that have demonstrated excellence in their fields. It is offered to scientists from non-G7 countries who have trained in the United States or the United Kingdom for at least a year and who have managed their own labs for fewer than seven years. This year seven scientists from China were selected.
In 2011, Dr. Chen joined SIBCB as a Principle Investigator, where her work has been focused on the long noncoding of RNAs (lncRNAs). Dr. Chen is studying the development of their molecular formation along with the significance they have in gene regulation, and how they may influence human health and diseases. She has discovered that some of these RNAs are noticeably absent in people with the neurodevelopmental genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome. We would like to give our warm congratulations for this well-deserved recognition of her scientific accomplishments to Dr. Chen and also are grateful for all her endeavors.
Appendix：
