HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 16 August 2024 - The Future Science Prize committee announces the winners of 2024 on August 16^th. Prof. Hongkui Deng receives the Future Science Prize in life sciences for his pioneering work on using small molecules to change cell fate and state, in particular to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells. Prof. Tao Zhang and Prof. Yadong Li receive the Future Science Prize in physical sciences for their seminal contributions to the development and application of Single-Atom Catalysis. Prof. Binyong Sun receives the Future Science Prize in mathematics and computer science, for his remarkable contributions to the representation theory of Lie groups. Citation: For his pioneering work on using small molecules to change cell fate and state, in particular to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells. Hongkui Deng has made seminal contributions in cell fate reprogramming. In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka and colleagues discovered that forced expression of transcriptional factors can convert fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The ability to produce and engineer patient-derived iPSCs marked a new era of regenerative medicine. Still, the application of transcriptional factor-based reprogramming is limited due to potential random transgene integrations, and expression of oncogenes. Hongkui Deng pioneered an approach of using small molecules to convert fibroblasts into iPSCs (termed CiPSCs, for chemically induced pluripotent stem cells). He showed that CiPSCs are germline-competent and can be used to successfully produce mice (2013), and revealed the underlying molecular pathways leading to CiPSC generation (2015, 2018). Deng also succeeded in generating human CiPSCs and demonstrated that human CiPSC-derived islets can ameliorate diabetes in non-human primates, showcasing the great clinical potential of hCiPSCs (2022a, 2022b, 2023) . Deng's seminal and transformative work has opened a new route for cellular reprogramming, with broad and long-term impact on stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Hongkui Deng, born in 1963 in Beijing, China. PhD: 1995 from University of California, Los Angeles. Current position: Boya Chair Professor of Peking University and Leading Scientist of Changping Laboratory, China. References: Hou et al. (2013) Science 341:651 Zhao et al. (2015) Cell 163:1678 Zhao et al. (2018) Cell Stem Cell 23:31 Guan et al. (2022a) Nature 605:325 Liuyang et al (2023) Cell Stem Cell 30:450 Du et al. (2022) Nature Medicine 28:272 Citation: For their seminal contributions to the development and application of Single-Atom Catalysis. Catalysis plays a pivotal role in the chemical industry, which is foundational to modern society. Developing efficient catalysts that exhibit desirable activity and are readily accessible remains a crucial endeavor in chemical science and engineering. Metal-based solid catalysts are extensively used across industrial processes, typically in the form of nanoparticles. Motivated by maximizing the utilization efficiency of metal atoms while achieving solid catalysts with well-defined active sites and uniform catalytic modes, researchers have intermittently explored the concept of dispersing metals as individual atoms for catalysis since the 1960s. However, primarily due to the absence of a general, versatile, and robust preparation method and rigorous characterization techniques, this research into solid catalysts comprising individual metal atoms did not yield significant breakthroughs for decades. In 2011, Tao Zhang, Jun Li and Jingyue Liu reported the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic properties of a single-atom Pt catalyst embedded in an FeOx substrate. This breakthrough established practical methods for the effective synthesis and rigorous characterizations of a solid catalyst with isolated single Pt atoms as the active centers and demonstrated that such catalysts exhibit superior activity and selectivity for CO oxidation. Zhang and his team coined the term "Single-Atom Catalysis (SAC)" and subsequently extended SAC to a variety of metals, supports, and reactions. Zhang's groundbreaking work has since marked a crucial milestone, catalyzing a surge in research efforts aimed at developing SAC for a diverse array of chemical reactions. Yadong Li and co-workers systematically advanced the deterministic and controlled synthesis of single-atom catalysts with structurally-defined morphology and coordination environment of the metal center. These methods enable the large-scale production of single-atom catalysts with high metal loading and uniform structural features, moving Single-Atom Catalysis one step closer to industrial...