Academia Sinica Academician Yuan Chuan Lee, Research Professor at the Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University has been awarded the 2011 Rosalind Kornfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement in Glycobiology, the Society for Glycobiology announced September 2. The award recognizes Academician Lee's seminal scientific contributions to advancing fundamental knowledge on how multivalent carbohydrates bind to lectins (sugar-binding proteins). Academician Lee will collect the prize at an award ceremony at the society's annual conference in Seattle this November.

        Glycobiology is the study of sugars. The Society for Glycobiology is a nonprofit, scholarly society devoted to the pursuit of knowledge of glycan (sugar) structures and functions, and to the sharing of that knowledge among scientists worldwide. The Rosalind Kornfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement in Glycobiology was established in 2008 to honor the distinguished scientific career and service to the society by Dr. Rosalind Kornfeld (1935-2007). The award is given by the society to scientists who have, over their professional lifetimes, made significant contributions with an important impact on the field of glycobiology.

        Academician Lee is a pioneer of glycoscience and one of the founding fathers of the field of glycobiology. In the late 1970s at the time of the emergence of the concept of animal lectins, Dr. Lee created synthetic proteins called "neoglycoproteins". Studies with these neoglycoproteins, not only established the basic binding characteristics of animal lectins, but also led to the discovery of the "cluster effect", which states that binding affinity increases geometrically with a linear increase in sugar density. This phenomenon is now recognized as a fundamental biological principle. Dr. Lee's findings boosted the speed and accuracy of experiments that showed how carbohydrates on cell surfaces affect cellular function and interactions, and have ultimately contributed to treatments for tissue rejection, hepatitis, nerve damage, cancer and inflammation.

        During his career Academician Lee has published an astounding 286 peer reviewed manuscripts and an additional 102 reviews, book chapters and books. The late biochemist and contemporary Professor Nathan Sharon, wrote in his letter nominating Academician Lee for the award: "… [Dr. Y.C. Lee's] career has contributed immensely to our understanding of glycobiology in disease and medicine, and I consider him one of the founding members of our Society."

        Academician Lee has served as a visiting professor in Kyoto University, Japan; Beijing Medical University, China; Shanghai Medical University, China; National Taiwan University; National Tsing Hua University, and also has served as a member of advisory committee of Institute of Biochemistry and Genomics Research Center at Academia Sinica. He was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica in 1994. He won the American Chemistry Society's prestigious Claude Hudson Award in 2002.

        Related website: http://www.glycobiology.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx