The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) announced on July 4 the full name list of its newly elected membership. This 2023 EMBO annual list named 60 Members and nine Associate Members, in recognition of their contribution to promote excellence in life sciences. Chinese scientist Nieng Yan ,the Founding Director of Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART), Director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL), is among the nine Associate Members elected to join EMBO this year.
Nieng Yan is dedicated to the structural and mechanistic investigation of transmembrane transport. Her research was the first to solve at atomic resolutions the structures of a series of membrane transport proteins involving important physiological and pathological processes, such as the human glucose transporters, and the eukaryotic voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels, revealing molecular basis for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of relevant diseases and drug development.
Nieng Yan was honored multiple awards by prestigious organizations. She is a recipient of the Science/AAAS and GE Healthcare Young Scientist Award (North America), the HHMI Inaugural International Early Career Award, the Outstanding Young Female Scientist Award of China, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Progress Award, the Protein Society Young Investigator Award, the Raymond & Beverley Sackler International Prize in Biophysics, the FAOBMB Award for Research Excellence, the Weizmann Women & Science Award, and the Biophysical Society Anatrace Membrane Protein Award. In 2019, Nieng was elected as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, and in 2021, an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
EMBO is a renowned academic organization in the international biomedical community, established in 1964, headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. The organization aims to promote cooperation and development in molecular biology and related fields. Each year, it elects outstanding scientists with significant contributions in the biomedical field as its members. This year, the newly elected join a community of more than 2,000 leading life science experts. They take their place alongside 91 Nobel laureates who have been elected to EMBO Membership. The 69 new members include 60 Members who reside in 17 Member States of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), EMBO’s intergovernmental funding body. The other nine scientists elected as Associate Members are currently based in the organization’s non-member states.
