Ning Jia, a postdoctoral fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, is the winner of the Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists in the field of chemistry. The awards, given out by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, honor outstanding postdoctoral scientists from academic research institutions across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The award comes with a $30,000 prize. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is affiliated with Rockefeller University, Cornell University, and the Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Jia has unlocked key biological mechanisms that govern the function of enzymes and CRISPR-Cas systems, such as those used in gene editing. Her research has provided scientists with an enhanced understanding of the functions and structure of individual atoms in biological molecules. In the case of her work on CRISPR-Cas systems, this detailed knowledge is necessary if we are to demonstrate that gene-editing can be used in the future to cure certain genetic diseases.
Dr. Jia is a graduate of Ocean University of China. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Science and Technology of China.