Current Awardees

Project Title: Characterizing skin cancer mechanics and the mechanosensory tumor microenvironment
Postdoc Mentor: Elaine Fuchs
Award Sponsor: MacMillan Family Foundation
Affiliation: Rockefeller University/HHMI
Email: jalmagro@rockefeller.edu

Project Title: Mechanical organizing centers in early lung development
Postdoc Mentor: Celeste Nelson
Award Sponsor: Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation
Affiliation: Princeton University
Email: sbanavar@princeton.edu

Project Title: The role of body temperature in aberrant viral replication and immune activation
Postdoc Mentor: A.J. te Velthuis
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: Princeton University
Email: karishma.bisht@princeton.edu

Project Title: Toward the ultrastructure of the node of Ranvier
Postdoc Mentor: Roderick MacKinnon
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Rockefeller University/HHMI
Email: jbloch@rockefeller.edu

Project Title: Deconvolving the heterogeneous response of single cells to influenza infection
Postdoc Mentor: Jesse Bloom
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center/HHMI
Email: abutler@fredhutch.org

Project Title: Discovery of Tau aggregate clearance pathways and their roles in neuronal function and survival
Postdoc Mentor: Michael Rapé
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley/HHMI
Email: dgarshot@berkeley.edu

Project Title: The role of non-canonical phosphorylation of nuclear lamins during interphase in enhanced migration and invasion
Postdoc Mentor: Michele Pagano
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: New York University/HHMI
Email: sharon.kaisari@nyulangone.org

Project Title: Exploring the Role of Hopx as a Conserved Regulator of Quiescence in Adult Stem Cells
Postdoc Mentor: Jonathan Epstein
Award Sponsor: The PCLB Foundation (New)
Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
Email: Faith.Karanja@Pennmedicine.Upenn.edu

Project Title: Targeting cytolysin virulence through complimentary biosynthetic and mechanism of action studies
Postdoc Mentor: Wilfred van der Donk
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign-HHMI
Email: rmoreira@uwaterloo.ca

Project Title: Neural circuits underlying feedback control of locomotion speed
Postdoc Mentor: Rachel Wilson
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Harvard Medical School/HHMI
Email: Diego_PachecoPinedo@hms.harvard.edu

Project Title: Role of Feeding Entrainment in Mediating Health and Lifespan
Postdoc Mentor: Joseph Takahashi
Award Sponsor: Welch Foundation (New)
Affiliation: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/HHMI
Email: heidi.pak@utsouthwestern.edu

Project Title: Developing tick control strategies to prevent Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases
Postdoc Mentor: Cassandra Extavour
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Harvard University/HHMI
Email: ironai@fas.harvard.edu

Project Title: Contribution of Plant Metabolites to Allergy and Oral Tolerance
Postdoc Mentor: Elizabeth Sattely
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Stanford University
Email: jeblum@stanford.edu

Project Title: Demystifying the viral proteome to identify host genes captured and repurposed by viruses
Postdoc Mentor: Nels Elde
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: University of Utah
Email: ian.boys@genetics.utah.edu

Project Title: Discovering the Astrocytic Compartment of Dopaminergic Synapses in Health and PD.
Postdoc Mentor: Cagla Eroglu
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Duke University
Email: nimrod.elazar@duke.edu

Project Title: Evaluating the molecular traits of metastasis founder-clones in primary colorectal tumors
Postdoc Mentor: Kamila Naxerova
Award Sponsor: MacMillan Family Foundation
Affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School
Email: agorelick@mgh.harvard.edu

Project Title: Using natural variation and cellular slime molds to uncover collective cell signaling rules
Postdoc Mentor: Allyson Sgro, Pankai Mehta and Christopher Chen
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation
Affiliation: Boston University
Email: ehager@bu.edu

Project Title: The neural circuits underlying cardiac function
Postdoc Mentor: Florian Engert
Award Sponsor: Additional Ventures
Affiliation: Harvard University
Email: luishernandeznunez@fas.harvard.edu

Project Title: Discovery of host antiviral targets by integrated phenotypic screening and chemical proteomics
Postdoc Mentor: Benjamin F. Cravatt
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: The Scripps Research Institute
Email: akim@scripps.edu

Project Title: A systematic search for novel rejuvenation factors through single cell profiling
Postdoc Mentor: Jonathan Weissman
Award Sponsor: Lei-Luo Life Science Fund
Affiliation: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research/MIT
Email: ylu@wi.mit.edu

Project Title: Engineering a minimal Cas9 for highly efficient genome editing
Postdoc Mentor: David Savage
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley
Email: mlukarska@berkeley.edu

Project Title: Designer Riboswitches for Gene Therapy
Postdoc Mentor: Ronald R. Breaker
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Yale University
Email: michael.mohsen@yale.edu

Project Title: A complete structural and kinetic characterization of σ54-mediated bacterial transcription initiation
Postdoc Mentor: Seth Darst
Award Sponsor: Agouron Institute
Affiliation: Rockefeller University
Email: amueller@rockefeller.edu

Project Title: Decrypting the Nucleolar Surface Organization in Ribosome Biogenesis
Postdoc Mentor: Clifford P Brangwynne
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Princeton University
Email: an3209@princeton.edu

Project Title: Temporal organization of movement sequences in the cerebellum
Postdoc Mentor: Abigail Person
Award Sponsor: Amgen
Affiliation: University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus
Email: abdelraheem.nashef@cuanschutz.edu

Project Title: Defining Social Interactions and Mechanisms of Coexistence in Experimental Phage Communities
Postdoc Mentor: Paul Turner
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation
Affiliation: Yale University
Email: nora.pyenson@yale.edu

Project Title: Probing the Contributions of Individual Species to Microbiome Ecology
Postdoc Mentor: Joseph Mougous
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: University of Washington
Email: hratner@uw.edu

Project Title: Reproducible germinal center reaction by naive B-cell repertoire miniaturization
Postdoc Mentor: Gabriel Victora
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: Rockefeller University
Email: trezende@rockefeller.edu

Project Title: Engineering a self-deliverable CRISPR-Cas9 system for precise genome editing
Postdoc Mentor: Jennifer A. Doudna
Award Sponsor: Additional Ventures
Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley
Email: kchen90 {at} berkeley.edu

Project Title: Neuropeptide circuits that regulate mosquito attraction to hosts
Postdoc Mentor: Laura B. Duvall
Affiliation: Columbia University
Award Sponsor: Life Sciences Research Foundation
Email: cg3251 {at} columbia.edu

Project Title: Bringing dead enzymes back to life
Postdoc Mentor: Vincent S. Tagliabracci
Award Sponsor: DDBrown Awardee
Affiliation: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Email: genaro.hernandez {at} utsouthwestern.edu

Project Title: Discovery of cryptic secondary metabolites from the human microbiome
Postdoc Mentor: Mohammad Seyedsayamdost
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: Princeton University
Email: zheng.huang {at} mail.mcgill.ca

Project Title: TRPV1+ sensory neurons mediate Schistosoma-induced itch and suppression of dermal DCs.
Postdoc Mentor: De’Broski Herbert
Award Sponsor: Life Sciences Research Foundation
Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
Email: jinclan {at} vet.upenn.edu

Project Title: Molecular basis for innate immune modulation by the Schlafen proteins
Postdoc Mentor: Philip J. Kranzusch
Award Sponsor: Open Philanthropy Project
Affiliation: DFCI/Harvard University
Email: alexanderG_Johnson {at} dfci.harvard.edu

Project Title: Gene therapy without the genes: delivering PTEN proteins via traceless bioreversible strategy
Postdoc Mentor: Ronald T. Raines
Award Sponsor: Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation
Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email: joomjun {at} mit.edu

Project Title: Dissecting curious exploration with self-supervised machine learning
Postdoc Mentor: Nick Haber
Award Sponsor: Merck
Affiliation: Stanford University
Email: ikauvar {at} stanford.edu

Project Title: Decoding rules of gene expression and quantitative trait variation in plants using deep conservation of cis-regulatory sequences
Postdoc Mentor: Zachary Lippman
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Email: lanctot {at} cshl.edu

Project Title: DNA double-strand break repair in the 4D genome
Postdoc Mentor: Taekjip Ha
Award Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Affiliation: Johns Hopkins University
Email: amaring1 {at} jhu.edu

Project Title: Phage-host interactions to investigate Corynebacterial biology
Postdoc Mentor: Thomas Bernhardt
Award Sponsor: Simons Foundation
Affiliation: Harvard University
Email: amelia_mckitterick {at} hms.harvard.edu

Project Title: Advancing T-cell immunotherapies by high throughput detection of trogocytosis using scRNAseq
Postdoc Mentor: Zev Gartner
Award Sponsor: MacMillan Family Foundation
Affiliation: University of California, San Francisco
Email: brittany.moser {at} ucsf.edu

Project Title: Monitoring on- and off-target transduction by engineered viral vectors non-invasively
Postdoc Mentor: Mikhail Shapiro
Award Sponsor: Amgen
Affiliation: California Institute of Technology
Email: nnystrom {at} caltech.edu