The Dickson Prize in Medicine

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Most Prestigious Award

Xiaowei Zhuang, David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has developed transformational technologies that have impacted multiple fields, especially neuroscience and cancer research, and are now widely used to study tissue organization in health, aging and disease.

A pioneer in super-resolution imaging and genome-scale imaging methods, Zhuang invented stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM). STORM is a super-resolution imaging method that broke the diffraction limit and allowed light microscopy with nanometer-scale resolution. Using STORM, Zhuang discovered novel molecular structures in cells. She invented a genome-scale imaging method, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH), which enabled spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics, 3D genomics, epigenomics and functional genomics. Using MERFISH, she made discoveries in areas ranging from molecular signatures, spatial organization and functions of cells in complex tissues to the 3D genome organization and gene regulation in cells.

Simon Watkins, PhD

Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology
Professor of Immunology
School of Medicine
swatkins@pitt.edu