The Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics would like to congratulate the winner of the John Mack Prescott Award, Mengqiu Jiang. Mengqiu will receive a thousand dollars and a plaque that will celebrate her achievements. 

Mengqiu is a fifth-year graduate student in Professor Junjie Zhang’s research group. She has co-authored 6 papers, including the first cryo-EM structures of the Gro-EL chaperonin complex with its endogenous substrate andof a Clostridium difficile toxinin complex with a neutralizing antibody-like molecule. These structures reveal important information about the mechanisms of protein folding inside the cell and, in the case of C. diff., provides critical insight into the development of potential therapeutics. Mengqiu’s advisor describes her as a “one-woman army,” citing her impressive ability to perform every step of structural characterization by cryo-EM.

The other nominees for this award were Rupesh Shrestha, Jiauri Song, and Pengbiao Xu. All nominees were outstanding and we commend them for their accomplishments and contributions to the discipline.