Current Awardees

Project Title: The molecular mechanisms of the initiation of type 2 immunity – how allergens are sensed
Postdoc Mentor: Ruslan Medzhitov
Affiliation: Yale University
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Email: karen.agaronyan {at} yale.edu

Project Title: Nutrient Sensing and Spore Germination
Postdoc Mentor: David Rudner
Affiliation: Harvard Medical School
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation (The)
Email: lior_artzi {at} hms.harvard.edu

Project Title: Learning to See the Physical World with Biologically-Inspired Recurrent Neural Networks
Postdoc Mentor: Daniel Yamins
Affiliation: Stanford University
Award Sponsor: Biogen Idec
Email: dbear {at} stanford.edu

Project Title: Identifying host factors required for flavivirus NS1 endocytosis and endothelial dysfunction
Postdoc Mentor: Eva Harris
Affiliation: University of California – Berkeley
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Email: sbiering {at} berkeley.edu

Project Title: The role of alternative splicing in the innate immune response against viral infections
Postdoc Mentor: Benjamin tenOever
Affiliation: Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Email: daniel.blancomelo {at} mssm.edu

Project Title: Maternally deposited proteins recurrently innovate to process paternal repetitive DNA in the embryo
Postdoc Mentor: Mia Levine
Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
Award Sponsor: Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation (The)
Email: clbrand {at} sas.upenn.edu

Project Title: Microbial modulation of forebrain development and social behavior
Postdoc Mentor: Judith Eisen and Philip Washbourne
Affiliation: University of Oregon
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Email: jjbruck {at} uoregon.edu

Project Title: Single cell assembly of a metazoan chemical defense system
Postdoc Mentor: Joseph Parker
Affiliation: California Institute of Technology
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation (The)
Email: adrian.brueckner {at} gmail.com

Project Title: Unraveling the mechanisms of cell division in the thermophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
Postdoc Mentor: R. Dyche Mullins
Affiliation: University of California – San Francisco
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation (The)
Email: arthur.charles-orszag {at} ucsf.edu

Project Title: Neutrophil count as a drug response predictor and novel drug target for autoinflammatory diseases in human
Postdoc Mentor: Purvesh Khatri
Affiliation: Stanford University
Award Sponsor: Lilly Research Laboratories
Email: guangbo {at} stanford.edu

Project Title: Direct Neuronal Reprogramming for Determining Molecular and Genetic Mechanisms of Protein Homeostasis in Alzheimer’s Disease
Postdoc Mentor: Judith Frydman
Affiliation: Stanford University
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Email: cchou6 {at} stanford.edu

Project Title: Synapse-seq: Simultaneous acquisition of single-neuron transcriptome and neuroanatomy
Postdoc Mentor: Evan Macosko and Beth Stevens
Affiliation: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Medical School
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Email: mdolan {at} broadinstitute.org

Project Title: Oviposition preference in the invasive agricultural pest Drosophila suzukii
Postdoc Mentor: John R. Carlson
Affiliation: Yale University
Award Sponsor: Merck Research Laboratories
Email: hany.dweck {at} yale.edu

Project Title: Molecular and Functional Characterization of the Enigmatic Spine Apparatus of Synapses
Postdoc Mentor: Pietro De Camilli
Affiliation: Yale University
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Email: hanieh.falahati {at} yale.edu

Project Title: The neuronal foundation of social behavior in the ant
Postdoc Mentor: Daniel Kronauer
Affiliation: Rockefeller University
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Email: dominic.frank {at} rockefeller.edu

Project Title: Determining mechanisms of neuronal regulation of stress responses in non-neuronal tissues
Postdoc Mentor: H. Robert Horvitz
Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Email: dipon {at} mit.edu

Project Title: Scalable methods for investigating the roles of cortical cell types in decision-making
Postdoc Mentor: Christopher Harvey
Affiliation: Harvard Medical School
Award Sponsor: Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Email: jonathan_green {at} hms.harvard.edu

Project Title: Avoiding Fatal Attraction – Crystallin proteins in crowded lens-like environments
Postdoc Mentor: Angela Gronenborg
Affiliation: University of Pittsburgh
Award Sponsor: Merck Research Laboratories
Email: ajg150 {at} pitt.edu

Project Title: Population genetics of the human microbiota
Postdoc Mentor: Hunter Fraser
Affiliation: Stanford University
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation (The)
Email: surh {at} stanford.edu

Project Title: Mechanisms and Impact of Horizontal Gene Transfer in a Model Microbial Community
Postdoc Mentor: Rachel Dutton
Affiliation: University of California San Diego
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation (The)
Email: gheussler {at} ucsd.edu

Project Title: Deciphering the impact of phages on bacterial functions in the human gut microbiome
Postdoc Mentor: Adam P. Arkin
Affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Award Sponsor: Astellas Pharmaceuticals
Email: yolandahuang {at} lbl.gov

Project Title: Mechanistic studies of neuroimmunological lipid pathways in Alzheimer’s disease
Postdoc Mentor: Benjamin Cravatt
Affiliation: The Scripps Research Institute
Award Sponsor: Biogen
Email: huijing {at} scripps.edu

Project Title: Nitrogen Recycling in Pancreatic Cancer Cells and its Role in Anti-Tumor Immunity
Postdoc Mentor: Marcia C. Haigis
Affiliation: Harvard Medical School
Award Sponsor: Gilead Sciences
Email: kiran_kurmi {at} hms.harvard.edu

Project Title: New non-standard amino acid based protein labeling technologies to illuminate bacterial cell division in high resolution
Postdoc Mentor: George Church
Affiliation: Harvard Medical School
Award Sponsor: Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation (The)
Email: erkin_kuru {at} hms.harvard.edu

Project Title: Deconstructing and decoding the working mechanisms of T cell receptors with single cell nanotechnology tools
Postdoc Mentor: Young-wook Jun
Affiliation: University of California – San Francisco
Award Sponsor: Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation (The)
Email: minsuk.kwak {at} ucsf.edu

Project Title: Cellular mechanisms of context dependent feature selectivity: inputs and plasticity
Postdoc Mentor: Jeffrey Magee
Affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Email: yidingl {at} bcm.edu