Gibbons Award
2021 Ian and Barbara Gibbons Gold Award Winner Seminar
Kai Zhang (Yale University)
Ian and Barbara Gibbons Award Announcement
4th August 2021
We are pleased to announce the winners of the first Ian and Barbara Gibbons Award. Ian and Barbara discovered and named the dynein motor, and dedicated their long research careers to the study of dyneins. This new award in their honor is supported by a generous donation from the Gibbons family and from support by Cytoskeleton Inc. (https://www.cytoskeleton.com).
This year, the Award Committee received and evaluated 22 outstandingly strong applications from diverse branches of the dynein field. We would like to thank all of the stellar applicants for participating and look forward to future iterations of the Gibbons Award!
We are pleased to announce two prizes:
Gold Award: The committee selected first author Qinhui Rao and new PI Kai Zhang for their work titled “Cryo-EM structures of outer-arm dynein array bound to microtubule doublet reveal a mechanism for motor coordination”. This beautiful work provides stunning cryo-EM structures of full outer-arm dynein complexes bound via their motor domains to microtubules. In addition to revealing high-resolution structural details of the dynein motors, these structures reveal a mechanism for inter-dynein coordination that provides a molecular basis for how large dynein arrays within the axoneme coordinate their chemomechanical cycles to produce movement within cilia and flagella. The committee recognizes that this work, along with similarly impactful findings on outer-arm dynein structures from the labs of Andrew Carter, Alan Brown and Huy Bui, will greatly influence the future of research on the structure, mechanism and biology of axonemal dyneins.
The winners will give the Gibbons Award lecture at the virtual Dynein 2021 meeting and receive a cash prize. Their elegant work can be found on the pre-print server BioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.08.415687v1.full.pdf+html
The complementary studies can be found here:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6532/910
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20735-7
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embr.202152911
Silver Award: For the second place Silver award, the committee selected a group nomination consisting of first authors Zaw Htet, John Gillies, and senior author Morgan DeSantis (in Samara Reck-Peterson’s Group) and Mohamed Elshenawy (in Ahmet Yildiz’s group) for their combined works on the regulation of cytoplasmic dynein activity by the protein LIS1. The committee recognized the group effort of this work, spanning multiple independent labs that came to the same conclusion about the role of LIS1 in activating the autoinhibited form of cytoplasmic dynein. The committee recognizes that this work transforms the field’s understanding of the regulation and activation of cytoplasmic dynein and was especially impressed with the collaborative effort and cooperative spirit of the published studies. Similar conclusions in non-mammalian model organisms were also published by the Markus and Xiang labs at the same time, providing a strong foundation on which the field will no doubt base future research directions.
All four awardees share a cash prize.
The Htet, Gilles and Desantis study is found here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-020-0506-z
The Elshenawy study is here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-020-0501-4
The complementary studies can be found here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-020-0492-1
https://rupress.org/jcb/article/218/11/3630/120925/LIS1-regulates-cargo-adapter-mediated-activation
The Ian and Barbara Gibbons Award Committee
Richard McKenney, Reto Gassmann, Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan, Ken’ya Furuta, Masahide Kikkawa, Pleasantine Mill, Khanh Huy Bui
The Ian and Barbara Gibbons Award
Scope: The award is for a published piece of work by a junior researcher or researchers that has made a significant impact in the dynein field since the last International Workshop.
Eligibility: Any current PhD student, postdoc or junior faculty (defined as pre-tenure or within 5 years of starting their lab) who has published a first author paper in the dynein field since the last dynein meeting in 2017. Junior faculty who have made a major experimental contribution to a paper on which they are corresponding author are also eligible.
Application: Candidates need to register for the meeting. They will be asked to write a short (max 500 word) justification listing the relevant paper, explaining the work’s impact and their contribution. The deadline for applications is July 1st 2021.
Many papers are the result of collaborations between multiple authors. We encourage applications that recognise this. Either all relevant authors can apply separately and cross reference each other’s applications. Alternatively, one author can apply, list all those who should be considered and their contributions.
Selection: All applications will be considered by the Organizing Committee. The awardee(s) will be selected based on the work considered to have made the greatest contribution to the dynein field since the last dynein international workshop. The Committee will consider the impact of the work and the contribution of the authors. Senior authors may be contacted to clarify the role played by the candidates.