Rosalind Kornfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement in Glycobiology
The Rosalind Kornfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement in Glycobiology was established in 2008 to honor the distinguished scientific career of Dr. Rosalind Kornfeld, as well as her outstanding service to the Society. This award is given by the Society to scientists who have, over their professional lifetimes, made significant contributions with important impact on the field and is presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society. In 2021, the society honored two colleagues with this prestigious award. 2023 Awardees
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One 2023 recipient of this Award is Dr. Kelly G. Ten Hagen, Senior Investigator and Chief, Developmental Glycobiology Section, and Associate Scientific Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ten Hagen began her scientific career as a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Stanley N. Cohen at Stanford where she studied aspects of DNA replication. Way ahead of her time, Dr. Ten Hagen “skipped the postdoc” and joined the University of Rochester as a research assistant professor. There she began a decades long collaboration with Dr. Larry Tabak focused on the structure and function of UDP GalNAc polypeptide:N-Acetyl-galactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-Ts). She was among the first to rigorously prove that a subset of GalNAc-Ts require glycopeptide substrates, laying the foundation for our current understanding that densely O-glycosylated proteins are modified by the concerted activity of multiple GalNAc-Ts. In 2001 Dr. Ten Hagen joined the intramural research program at NIH and rose through the ranks ultimately achieving Senior Investigator status, and appointment as an Associate Scientific Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. In one of her earliest studies at NIH, Dr. Ten Hagen demonstrated that mucin-type O-glycans were essential for life. Thus began a series of elegant studies using Drosophila to demonstrate the many biological roles played by mucin-type O-glycans including epithelial tube formation, cell adhesion, secretion of extracellular matrix, and regulation of furin cleavage in vivo. Dr. Ten Hagen subsequently led a team of four NIH laboratories to explore the role of O-glycosylation in modulating furin cleavage of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Dr. Ten Hagen has also conducted several seminal studies with mouse models of GalNAc-T function, including the demonstration that Galnt3 specifically alters Muc10 glycosylation and the oral microbiome. 
Another recipient of the 2023 Rosalind Kornfeld Award is Dr. Donald L. Jarvis. Don earned B.S. (1978) and M.S. (1980) degrees in Microbiology at Idaho State University and a Ph.D. (1986) in Virology at Baylor College of Medicine. Don’s first exposure to glycobiology came unexpectedly while studying SV40 large T-antigen under the tutelage of Janet Butel at Baylor when they found T-antigen is glycosylated. This solidified Don’s interest in using viruses to study glycoprotein biosynthesis and processing, which he pursued in the baculovirus-insect cell system after joining Max Summers’ group as a postdoc at Texas A&M University in 1987. Don continued this work as an independent faculty member at Texas A&M from 1989-1997, which is when he became fully immersed in glycobiology and began a career focused on elucidating insect cell protein glycosylation pathways. Initially, Don’s group performed biochemical studies on insect cell-derived N-glycoproteins to retrospectively characterize the N-glycosylation pathway and the impact of baculovirus infection on this pathway. His group then transitioned to a prospective analysis of insect cell glycosylation pathways involving isolating genes encoding endogenous glycoprotein processing machinery, including glycosylhydrolases, glycosyltransferases, and nucleotide sugar transporters, determining their sequences, and characterizing the functions of the gene products. Don had no formal training in glycobiology and was given generous and open advice and collaboration from key members of the Society for Glycobiology, including Joel and Nancy Shaper, Harry Schachter, Kelley Moremen, Annette Herscovics, John Lowe, and Pamela Stanley, among others, which solidified his admiration for the field and many of its leaders and love for the SFG, which he joined in 1995. 