Title: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Announces 25 New Hanna H. Gray Fellows
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has announced its latest batch of Hanna H. Gray Fellows, comprising 25 brilliant early-career researchers. These talented individuals will receive up to $1.5 million for up to eight years to delve into groundbreaking research in their chosen fields.
Situated among the nation's premier honors for young scientific minds, these fellowships grant financial backing for young researchers to explore complex scientific conundrums during a critical period encompassing their postdoctoral training under esteemed mentors, culminating in their transition to independent faculty roles.
HHMI Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer Leslie Vosshall expressed her enthusiasm in a statement, highlighting HHMI's dedication to supporting pioneering scientists taking on society's most significant challenges and embracing a more inclusive future for scientific advancements.
The 2022 cohort - details of which can be found here - boasts scientists researching an assorted scope of topics. For instance,
- Maple Adkins-Threats, a researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is unraveling regulators of gastric tissue development, potentially leading to enhanced treatments for gastric disorders.
- Riley Galton, a geneticist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, is investigating how genetic modifications allow organisms to adapt to their environment.
- Jhullian J. Alston, currently affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital, is studying dynamic proteins' interactions with DNA and other proteins, which could enhance their utility as drug therapy targets.
- Jim Castellanos, a resident in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a post doc at Rockefeller University, is dissecting the molecular immunology that enables skin stem cells to accelerate healing in critically ill patients.
- Cori Fain, a post doc in the department of pathology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is probing how past infections influence the brain's functioning and could accelerate brain aging.
- Grace Liu, a molecular and cell biology post doc at the University of California, Berkeley, is examining the immune system's ability to distinguish friendly microbes from dangerous pathogens, which could unlock new strategies to combat viral transmission and autoimmunity.
- Juliet Mwirigi, a Washington University (St. Louis) post doc, is focusing on chronic pain mechanisms in both rodent and human sensory neurons, with the goal of developing better pain relief medications.
- Julianne Pelaez, a postdoctoral associate in biology at Brandeis University, is researching insect gustatory receptors, which could pave the way for preventing the transmission of insect-borne infectious diseases.
- Daniela C. Soto, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is delving into the genetic roots of human brain evolution by studying human-specific forms of messenger RNA.
Since the program's inception in 2016, HHMI has allocated over $190 million to sponsor more than 140 Hanna H. Gray Fellows. Over 30 of these scholars have now ascended to positions leading their own research teams.
The program's moniker honors Hanna Holborn Gray, former chair of the HHMI board of trustees and former president of the University of Chicago. According to HHMI, under Gray's leadership, "the Institute made notable modifications to its procedure for selecting the scientists it supports, expanding its pool of applicants"[1][5].
These postdoctoral researchers, including Maple Adkins-Threats and Jim Castellanos, are among the 2022 Hanna H. Gray Fellows, benefiting from funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for their groundbreaking scientific research. The scientific research conducted by young scientists like Riley Galton and Julianne Pelaez, under the HHMI's Hanna H. Gray Fellowship, is making significant strides in various fields, such as gene adaptation and insect-borne disease prevention.
