Jason Chin, Magdalen Fellow, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Oxford, and Founding Director of the Generative Biology Institute at the Ellison Institute of Technology, has been awarded the 2026 Heinrich Wieland Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious honours for fundamental research in the life sciences.
The €250,000 prize recognises his pioneering contributions to synthetic biology, which have transformed scientists’ understanding of the genetic code and opened new possibilities for medicine, biotechnology, and advanced materials.
Professor Chin’s research rests on three landmark achievements. First, he created a bacterial strain carrying the largest and most radically redesigned synthetic genome ever made. Second, he engineered an entirely new cellular translation system, enabling cells to read rewritten genetic instructions. Third, by combining these innovations, he reprogrammed cells to produce entirely new classes of molecules. Together, these advances have moved synthetic biology beyond modifying existing cellular pathways towards redesigning the fundamental information system of life.
Professor Chin was also the first to extend genetic code expansion beyond bacteria, bringing the technology to mammalian cells. In one of his most recent studies, he removed a chromosome from a human cell, transferred it into a mouse embryonic stem cell, chemically rewrote it, and then reintroduced it into a human cell. The work represents an important step towards building synthetic human chromosomes, with far-reaching implications for understanding how genomes function and for developing new treatments for genetic disease.
Franz-Ulrich Hartl, Chair of the Scientific Board of Trustees of the Heinrich Wieland Prize, said, “Jason has done something remarkable: he has shown that the genetic code, long considered fixed and near-universal, can be systematically rewritten.”
The Heinrich Wieland Prize has recognised outstanding research in chemistry, biochemistry, and physiology since 1964 and is among Europe’s leading awards for the life sciences. Professor Chin will receive the award at a ceremony in Munich on 5 November 2026.
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