THE Genetics Society of America's (GSA's) Edward Novitski Prize recognizes a single experimental accomplishment or a body of work in which an exceptional level of creativity, and intellectual ingenuity, has been used to design and execute scientific experiments to solve a difficult problem in genetics. The 2019 recipient is Joseph Heitman, who is recognized for his work on fungal pathogens of humans and for ingenious experiments using yeast to identify the molecular targets of widely used immunosuppressive drugs. The latter work, part of Heitman's postdoctoral research, proved to be a seminal contribution to the discovery of the conserved Target of Rapamycin (TOR) pathway. In his own research group, a recurring theme has been the linking of fundamental insights in fungal biology to medically important problems. His studies have included defining fungal mating-type loci, including their evolution and links to virulence, and illustrating convergent transitions from outcrossing to inbreeding in fungal pathogens of plants and animals. He has led efforts to establish new genetic and genomic methods for studying pathogenesis in Cryptococcus species. Heitman's group also discovered unisexual reproduction, a novel mode of fungal reproduction with implications for pathogen evolution and the origins of sexual reproduction.

中文翻译：

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E Pluribus Unum：真菌王国作为生物学和医学的罗塞塔石碑。

美国遗传学会 (GSA) 的爱德华·诺维茨基奖旨在表彰一项实验成就或一组工作，其中使用了卓越水平的创造力和智力独创性来设计和执行科学实验以解决遗传学中的难题。2019 年获奖者是约瑟夫·海特曼 (Joseph Heitman)，他因在人类真菌病原体方面的工作以及利用酵母鉴定广泛使用的免疫抑制药物的分子靶点的巧妙实验而受到认可。后者的工作是 Heitman 博士后研究的一部分，被证明对发现保守的雷帕霉素靶点 (TOR) 途径做出了开创性贡献。在他自己的研究小组中，一个反复出现的主题是将真菌生物学的基本见解与重要的医学问题联系起来。他的研究包括定义真菌交配型位点，包括它们的进化和与毒力的联系，并说明植物和动物真菌病原体从异型杂交到近交的趋同转变。他领导了建立新的遗传和基因组方法来研究隐球菌属物种发病机制的努力。海特曼的研究小组还发现了单性繁殖，这是一种新的真菌繁殖模式，对病原体进化和有性繁殖的起源具有重要意义。