In this November issue of Cell Research, we are proud to announce the winners of the 5th Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award, which were selected from papers published in the 2013 print issues of Cell Research. The 2013 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Review Article Award goes to Dr George Daley, for his review paper entitled “A blueprint for engineering cell fate: current technologies to reprogram cell identify”1, which is co-authored with Dr Samantha A Morris. The winners of the 2013 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Research Article Award are Dr Jiahuai Han, for his paper entitled “Mlkl knockout mice demonstrate the indispensable role of Mlkl in necroptosis”2; and Dr Rudolf Jaenisch, for his paper entitled “Multiplexed activation of endogenous genes by CRISPR-on, an RNA-guided transcriptional activator system”3. The award consists of a prize of € 3000 for the Outstanding Review Article Award and € 5000 for the Outstanding Research Article Award sponsored by Sanofi. The three award-winning papers are selected based on the voting by members of the Sanofi-Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences Steering Committee.

The award-winning review by Drs Daley and Morris was published in the January issue of 2013. The review provides an expert analysis on the current strategies to manipulate cell identities and discuss challenges faced by the field in its marching towards the ultimate goal of harnessing the technology of cell fate conversion for the production of medically relevant cell populations. In the first award-winning research article, published in the August 2013 issue, Dr Jiahuai Han and his colleagues report the detailed characterization of Mlkl knockout mice, providing definitive in vivo genetic evidence for the critical role of Mlkl in mediating programmed necrosis, a form of cell death that is distinct from apoptosis. In the second award-winning research article, published in the October 2013 issue, Dr Rudolf Jaenisch and his colleagues utilized a modified version of the CRISPR/Cas9 system, a newly emerging genetic tool, to create RNA-guided transcriptional activators that could act to robustly activate endogenous target gene expression in vivo, thus providing a versatile system to specifically manipulate gene expression at both the cellular and organism levels.

Please join us to congratulate Drs Daley, Morris, Han, and Jaenisch on their winning of the 2013 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award. We have no doubt that this yearly award program, along with the rapidly rising status of the journal, will encourage more and more scientists to submit their best work to Cell Research.