The 2026 Honess Lecture is given by James Chen, who holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science at UT Southwestern, Dallas.
The Robert Honess Lecture is a prestigious invited lecture honouring the life and legacy of Bob Honess, a highly regarded virologist whose pioneering research contributed significantly to our understanding of herpesvirus molecular biology, pathogenesis, and genome structure. Bob worked at the National Institute for Medical Research, one of the Crick's legacy institutes, before his untimely death in 1990.
This year's lecturer, James Chen, has made fundamentally important discoveries elucidating the process by which the human body fights off invasive viruses, bacteria, and other microbes. In 2012, his laboratory identified the DNA-sensing enzyme cGAS, which acts as a “burglar alarm” to trigger the body’s immune system when it detects a pathogen. Earlier, he identified the first mitochondrial protein known to be involved in immunity against infection, which he dubbed MAVS, describing its function (mitochondrial antiviral signalling) and at the same time honouring his favourite basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks.
James's research has been recognised with some of the most esteemed awards in science, including the Japan Prize (2026), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2024), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2023), and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019), among others.
James is a member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society.
