Jiang wins NIH Replication Prize

QSI RENU member Bin Jiang recently received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Replication Prize for proposing a strategy to make mitochondrial transfer reproducible. This approach could assist scientists in developing new mitochondrial therapies, understanding how they restore cellular function, and establishing more reliable standards for research across laboratories.

Jiang’s research focuses on isolating mitochondria — the energy-producing machinery of cells — and then transplanting them to tissues with mitochondrial dysfunction or damage. Her winning idea for the Replication Prize is to establish standardized mitochondrial preparation and benchmarking frameworks that enable reproducible mechanistic studies.

“I am honored to receive this award and am grateful the reviewers recognized the potential of our proposed approach,” said Jiang, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Northwestern. “Mitochondrial transfer is a rapidly growing field with exciting therapeutic potential, but many fundamental questions remain unresolved because laboratories currently use highly variable preparation and characterization methods. Establishing standardized and reproducible frameworks could help researchers better understand how transferred mitochondria function in cells and accelerate the safe and rational development of future mitochondrial therapies.” 

The Replication Prize was created “to recognize and reward progress in making important areas of biomedical research more replicable,” according to the prize announcement. Jiang and the other winners were recognized May 13 during a virtual awards ceremony.