In this issue of Cell Research, we are proud to announce the winners of the 6th Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award, which were selected from papers published in the 2014 print issues of Cell Research. The 2014 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Review Article Award goes to Dr Kun-Liang Guan, for his review paper entitled “Autophagy regulation by nutrient signaling”. The winners of the 2014 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Research Article Award are Drs Xuetao Cao and Yan Bao, for their paper entitled “Identification of IFN-γ-producing innate B cells”; and Drs Hong Tang and Xinwen Chen, for their paper entitled “Persistent hepatitis C virus infection and hepatopathological manifestations in immune-competent humanized mice”. 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 Dr Guan was published in the January issue of 20141, as part of a special issue on autophagy featuring a collection of seven authoritative reviews from world renowned scientists in the field2. Autophagy is a lysosome-based degradation process that plays fundamental roles in maintaining cellular homeostasis. The review by Dr Guan provides an expert analysis on the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which cellular nutrient and energy statuses are sensed by the autophagy pathway. In the first award-winning research article, published in the February 2014 issue, immunologists Xuetao Cao, Yan Bao, and their colleagues report the exciting discovery of a novel B cell subset that produces high levels of IFN-γ during the early stage of immune responses3. These innate B cells can promote macrophage activation via IFN-γ signaling and thus help fight against bacterial infections. In the second award-winning research article, published in the September 2014 issue, virologists Hong Tang, Xinwen Chen and their colleagues report, for the first time, the successful establishment of an immune-competent mouse model that supports persistent and chronic HCV infection4. HCV infection poses a serious threat to human health; animal models would be invaluable to our efforts of understanding HCV pathogenesis. Thus the mouse model established in this study will open new avenues for probing mechanisms of hepatitis C pathogenesis and developing potential new therapies.

Please join us to congratulate Drs Guan, Cao and Bao, and Tang and Chen on their winning of the 2014 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award. Cell Research has enjoyed a rapid rising of its academic status in recent years and is becoming a prominent platform for scientists all over the world to publish their outstanding works. We are pleased to highlight some of the best papers we have published each year by this yearly award program, which we hope will help encourage more and more scientists to submit their best work to the journal.