NetBet sport

MIT affiliates named 2024 HHMI Investigators

Four faculty members and four others with MIT ties are recognized for pushing the boundaries of science and for creating highly inclusive and collaborative research environments.

School of Science
July 23, 2024

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) today announced its 2024 investigators, four of whom hail from the School of Science at MIT: Steven Flavell, Mary Gehring, Mehrad Jazayeri, and Gene-Wei Li.

Four others with MIT ties were also honored: Jonathan Abraham, graduate of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program; Dmitriy Aronov PhD ’10; Vijay Sankaran, graduate of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program; and Steven McCarroll, institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Every three years, HHMI selects roughly two dozen new investigators who have significantly impacted their chosen disciplines to receive a substantial and completely discretionary grant. This funding can be reviewed and renewed indefinitely. The award, which totals roughly $11 million per investigator over the next seven years, enables scientists to continue working at their current institution, paying their full salary while providing financial support for researchers to be flexible enough to go wherever their scientific inquiries take them.

Of the almost 1,000 applicants this year, 26 investigators were selected for their ability to push the boundaries of science and for their efforts to create highly inclusive and collaborative research environments.

“When scientists create environments in which others can thrive, we all benefit,” says HHMI president Erin O’Shea. “These newest HHMI Investigators are extraordinary, not only because of their outstanding research endeavors but also because they mentor and empower the next generation of scientists to work alongside them at the cutting edge.”

NetBet live casino

Steven Flavell, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and investigator in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, seeks to uncover the neural mechanisms that generate the internal states of the brain, for example, different motivational and arousal states. Working in the model organism, the C. elegans worm, the lab has used genetic, systems, and computational approaches to relate neural activity across the brain to precise features of the animal’s behavior. In addition, they have mapped out the anatomical and functional organization of the serotonin system, mapping out how it modulates the internal state of C. elegans. As a newly named HHMI Investigator, Flavell will pursue research that he hopes will build a foundational understanding of how internal states arise and influence behavior in nervous systems in general. The work will employ brain-wide neural NetBet live casinorecordings, computational modeling, expansive research on neuromodulatory system organization, and studies of how the synaptic wiring of the nervous system constrains an animal’s ability to generate different internal states.

“I think that it should be possible to define the basis of internal states in C. elegans in concrete terms,” Flavell says. “If we can build a thread of understanding from the molecular architecture of neuromodulatory systems, to changes in brain-wide activity, to state-dependent changes in behavior, then I think we’ll be in a much better place as a field to think about the basis of brain states in more complex animals.”

Mary Gehring

Mary Gehring, professor of biology and core member and David Baltimore Chair in Biomedical Research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, studies how plant epigenetics modulates plant growth and development, with a long-term goal of uncovering the essential genetic and epigenetic elements of plant seed biology. Ultimately, the Gehring Lab’s work provides the scientific foundations for engineering alternative modes of seed development and improving plant resiliency at a time when worldwide agriculture is in a uniquely precarious position due to climate changes.

The Gehring Lab uses genetic, genomic, computational, synthetic, and evolutionary approaches to explore heritable traits by investigating repetitive sequences, DNA methylation, and chromatin structure. The lab primarily uses the model plant A. thaliana, a member of the mustard family and the first plant to have its genome sequenced.

“I’m pleased that HHMI has been expanding its support for plant biology, and gratified that our lab will benefit from its generous support,” Gehring says. “The appointment gives us the freedom to step back, take a fresh look at the scientific opportunities before us, and pursue the ones that most interest us. And that’s a very exciting prospect.”

Mehrad Jazayeri

Mehrdad Jazayeri, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences and an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, studies how physiological processes in the brain give rise to the abilities of the mind. Work in the Jazayeri Lab brings together ideas from cognitive science, neuroscience, and machine learning with experimental data in humans, animals, and computer models to develop a computational understanding of how the brain creates internal representations, or models, of the external world.

Before coming to MIT in 2013, Jazayeri received his BS in electrical engineering, majoring in telecommunications, from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. He completed his MS in physiology at the University of Toronto and his PhD in neuroscience at New York University.

With his appointment to HHMI, Jazayeri plans to explore how the brain enables rapid learning and flexible behavior — central aspects of intelligence that have been difficult to study using traditional neuroscience approaches.

“This is a recognition of my lab’s past accomplishments and the promise of the exciting research we want to embark on,” he says. “I am looking forward to engaging with this wonderful community and making new friends and colleagues while we elevate our science to the next level.”

Gene-Wei Li,

Gene-Wei Li, associate professor of biology, has been working on quantifying the amount of proteins cells produce and how protein synthesis is orchestrated within the cell since opening his lab at MIT in 2015.

Li, whose background is in physics, credits the lab’s findings to the skills and communication among his research team, allowing them to explore the unexpected questions that arise in the lab.

For example, two of his graduate student researchers found that the coordination between transcription and translation fundamentally differs between the model organisms E. coli and B. subtilis. In B. subtilis, the ribosome lags far behind RNA polymerase, a process the lab termed “runaway transcription.” The discovery revealed that this kind of uncoupling between transcription and translation is widespread across many species of bacteria, a study that contradicted the long-standing dogma of molecular biology that the machinery of protein synthesis and RNA polymerase work side-by-side in all bacteria.

The support from HHMI enables Li and his team the flexibility to pursue the basic research that leads to discoveries at their discretion.

“Having this award allows us to be bold and to do things at a scale that wasn’t possible before,” Li says. “The discovery of runaway transcription is a great example. We didn’t have a traditional grant for that.”

Gene-Wei Li named 2024 HHMI Investigator

HHMI award will help Department of Biology faculty unravel the mysteries of precision gene expression across the proteome

Noah Daly | Department of Biology
July 23, 2024

To better understand how cells precisely control the levels of their proteins, Associate Professor Gene-Wei Li utilizes rigorous quantitative analysis to improve our molecular understandings of life. With the support he’ll receive as an HHMI Investigator, Li will explore how genomes are sculpted to allow lifeforms to survive in a competitive environment.

As versatile and durable as cells are, their every function depends on producing precise quantities of proteins. These proteins enable the cells to perform their functions, their organelles to work, and tell the cells when to grow or decompose. Without precise instructions for how much protein they need to generate, organisms would struggle to self-regulate efficiently, rendering them incapable of becoming competitive life forms. These “recipes” for protein production are written into the genetic code of all life. Recent advances in DNA sequencing have identified every protein an organism can produce–every “ingredient” in the genetic cookbook. Despite these significant advances, researchers still don’t know how to read the instructions. 

Since opening his lab at MIT in 2015, Associate Professor of Biology Gene-Wei Li has been working, among other things, on quantifying the amount of proteins cells produce and how that process is orchestrated within the cell. 

“The goal that we hope to achieve,” Li says, “is to read the genomic sequence and accurately tell you not just what types of proteins are made, but also how many of them will be made.” 

Li was recently named a 2024 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, one of 26 newly appointed Investigators hailing from 19 institutions. Each HHMI Investigator will receive roughly $11 million in support over a seven-year term, potentially renewable indefinitely. This support includes their full salary and benefits, a generous research budget, scientific equipment, and additional resources. 

“I feel grateful for the extremely supportive environment in my department,” Li says. “This award is also a recognition for the hard work and risk-taking by my lab’s current and past trainees.” 

Other MIT School of Science faculty joining the 2024 cohort include Mary Gehring, Professor of Biology and Core Member and David Baltimore Chair in Biomedical Research at the Whitehead Institute; Steven Flavell, Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Investigator in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory; and Mehrdad Jazayeri, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the McGovern Institute.  

Of the nearly 1,000 researchers who applied to be HHMI investigators this year, successful applicants were selected for their singular accomplishments in scientific research. They receive extensive resources to continue their work at their home institution. HHMI enables scientists to pursue their work with extraordinary freedom, allowing them to expand their current efforts, pivot focus as needed, and execute original ideas. 

One of the hallmarks of Li’s lab is the devoted attention he gives to his students. Each member of the lab receives extensive guidance and mentorship, enabling them to pursue careers in science while sharing their ideas and concerns with fellow lab members and Li. For this inclusive culture, Li was honored by MIT as “Committed to Caring” for 2020-2021. 

“When scientists create environments in which others can thrive, we all benefit,” says HHMI President Erin O’Shea. “These newest HHMI Investigators are extraordinary, not only because of their outstanding research endeavors but also because they mentor and empower the next generation of scientists to work alongside them at the cutting edge.”  

In his lab, Li has emphasized the interweaving of individual achievement and the success of the group, creating a space for lab members to learn from one another, freely question their principal investigator, and ultimately make breakthroughs together. 

Discovery through Collaboration 

While Li’s lab was built around the question of quantifying a cell’s protein synthesis–that is, the amounts of all the proteins produced in a cell—his background is in physics. He approaches his work by making quantitative and systematic measurements (mainly with high-throughput DNA sequencing tools) and using that information to uncover fundamental molecular mechanisms in gene expression. 

The Li lab’s early work utilizing this methodology demonstrated that proteins that go on to form complexes are made in the correct ratios to immediately form complexes with few extra copies. 

Li’s team went on to discover that metabolic proteins are synthesized at precise ratios that are conserved across evolutionarily distant species, such as the two bacterial model organisms E. coli and B. subtilis. However, netbet sports betting appdespite their shared output of protein production, the billions of years of evolution gave rise to two completely different ways to control protein quantity. 

In 2020, this line of research produced a study that contradicted the longstanding dogma of molecular biology that the machinery of protein synthesis and RNA polymerase work side by side in bacteria, which it does in E coli. 

According to Li, two of his graduate student researchers found that, in B. subtilis, the ribosome lags far behind RNA polymerase, a process the lab termed “runaway transcription.” They found that the coordination between transcription and translation is fundamentally different between E. coli and B. subtilis. They then identified bioinformatic signatures, revealing that this kind of uncoupling between transcription and translation is widespread across many species of bacteria. The students, Grace Johnson, a former graduate student in the Department of Biology, and Jean-Benoît Lalanne, a former graduate student in the Department of Physics, were the lead authors of the paper, which appeared in Nature. 

 “This is very exciting stuff, but all the credit goes to my grad students,” Li chuckles. 

Finding the Room to Be Bold 

The support from Howard Hughes Medical Institute enables Li and his team the flexibility to pursue the basic research that leads to discoveries. 

“Having this award really allows us to be bold and to do things at a scale that wasn’t possible before. The discovery of runaway transcription is a great example of this,” Li says.  

Li plans on using the funds made available from HHMI to help determine how functionally related genes differ in their expression and how signals are encoded in the genome at the DNA and RNA levels. According to Li, the collection of high-quality and system-wide data is essential to making discoveries in his field. 

“I’m incredibly grateful to HHMI for encouraging us to pursue this work and follow the science wherever it leads us,” he says. 

Li and his team are as eager as ever to understand life’s coded cookbook. 

“The work of science begins with great people,” Li says. “This award will help ensure our lab continues to be a place where incredible young scientists can work together to achieve miraculous things.” 

Sara Prescott named Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences

Assistant Professor Sara Prescott and her lab plan to test whether and how neurons have a role in airway remodeling, which goes awry in many diseases.

David Orenstein | The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
June 17, 2024
2024 Catalyst Symposium

Lowering ‘activation barriers’ for rising biology researchers

Lillian Eden | Department of Biology
May 16, 2024

The second annual Catalyst Symposium, sponsored by the Department of Biology and Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, invited postdocs from across the country to meet with faculty, present their work to the MIT community, and build relationships.

For science — and the scientists who practice it — to succeed, it must be shared. That’s why members of the MIT community recently gathered to learn about the research of eight postdocs from across the country for the second annual Catalyst Symposium, an event co-sponsored by the Department of Biology and The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. 

The eight Catalyst Fellows came to campus as part of an effort to increase engagement between MIT scholars and postdocs excelling in their respective fields from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in science. The three-day symposium included panel discussions with faculty and postdocs, one-on-one meetings, social events, and research talks from the Catalyst Fellows.

“I love the name of this symposium because we’re all, of course, eager to catalyze advancements in our professional lives, in science, and to move forward faster by lowering activation barriers,” says MIT Biology Department Head Amy Keating. “I feel we can’t afford to do science with only part of the talent pool, and I don’t think people can do their best work when they are worried about whether they belong.”  

The cohort of 2024 Catalyst Fellows included: Chloé Baron from Boston Children’s Hospital; Maria Cecília Canesso from The Rockefeller University; Kiara Eldred from the University of Washington School of Medicine; Caitlin Kowalski from the University of Oregon; Fabián Morales-Polanco from Stanford University; Kali Pruss from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; Rodrigo Romero from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and Zuri Sullivan from Harvard University. 

Romero, who received his PhD from MIT working in the Jacks Lab at the Koch Institute, said that it was “incredible to see so many familiar faces,” but he spent the Symposium lunch chatting with new students in his old lab. 

“Especially having been trained to think differently after MIT, I can now reach out to people that I didn’t as a graduate student, and make connections that I didn’t think about before,” Romero says. 

He presented his work netbet online sports bettingon lineage plasticity in the tumor microenvironment. Lineage plasticity is a hallmark of tumor progression but also occurs during normal development, such as wound healing.

As for the general mission of the symposium, Romero agreed with Keating. 

“Trying to lower the boundary for other people to actually have a chance to do academic research in the future is important,” Romero says.

The Catalyst Symposium is aimed at early-career scientists who foresee a path in academia. Of the 2023 Catalyst Fellows, one has already secured a faculty position. Starting in September 2024, Shan Maltzer will be an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Pharmacology and the Vanderbilt Brain Institute studying mechanisms of somatosensory circuit assembly, development, and function. 

Another aim of the Catalyst Symposium is to facilitate collaborations and strengthen existing relationships. Sullivan, an immunologist and molecular neuroscientist who presented on the interactions between the immune system and the brain, is collaborating with Sebastian Lourido, an Associate Professor of Biology and Core Member of the Whitehead Institute. Lourido’s studies include pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii, which is known to alter the behavior of infected rodents. In the long term, Sullivan hopes to bridge research in immunology and neuroscience — for instance by investigating how infection affects behavior. She has observed that two rodents experiencing illness will huddle together in a cage, whereas an unafflicted rodent and an ill one will generally avoid each other when sharing the same space. 

Pruss presented research on the interactions between the gut microbiome and the environment, and how they may affect physiology and fetal development. Kowalski discussed the relationship between fungi residing on our bodies and human health. Beyond the opportunity to deliver talks, both agreed that the small group settings of the three-day event were rewarding.

“The opportunity to meet with faculty throughout the symposium has been invaluable, both for finding familiar faces and for establishing friendly relationships,” Pruss says. “You don’t have to try to catch them when you’re running past them in the hallway.”

Eldred, who studies cell fate in the human retina, says she was excited about the faculty panels because they allowed her to ask faculty about fundamental aspects of recruiting for their labs, like bringing in graduate students. 

Kowalski also says she enjoyed interfacing with so many new ideas — the spread of scientific topics from among the cohort of speakers extended beyond those she usually interacts with.

Mike Laub, Professor of Biology and HHMI Investigator, and Yadira Soto-Feliciano, Assistant Professor of Biology and Intramural Faculty at the Koch Institute, were on the symposium’s planning committee, along with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Hallie Dowling-Huppert. Laub hopes the symposium will continue to be offered annually; next year’s Catalyst Symposium is already scheduled to take place in early May.

“I thought this year’s Catalyst Symposium was another great success. The talks from the visiting Fellows featured some amazing science from a wide range of fields,” Laub says. “I also think it’s fair to say that their interactions with the faculty, postdocs, and students here generated a lot of excitement and energy in our community, which is exactly what we hoped to accomplish with this symposium.”

Staff Spotlight: John Fucillo, Building 68 Manager, EHS Coordinator; Chemical Hygiene Officer

Laying foundations for MIT Biology

Samantha Edelen | Department of Biology
May 2, 2024

Building 68 manager John Fucillo’s leadership, innovation, and laid-back attitude have built a community culture that will never be taken for granted. 

When entering the office of Building 68’s manager, you will likely be greeted first with an amiable nose boop and wagging tail from Shadow, a four-year-old black lab, followed by a warm welcome from the office’s other occupant, John Fucillo. Fucillo is an animal lover, and Shadow is the gentlest of roughly nine dogs and one Siamese cat he’s taken care of throughout his life. Fortunately for MIT Biology, Shadow is not the only lab Fucillo cares for. 

A Boston area local, Fucillo spent two years working at Revere Beach, then learned skills as an auto mechanic, and later completed an apprenticeship with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. In 1989, Fucillo came to MIT Biology and says he couldn’t be happier.

As Building 68’s manager, Environment, Health & Safety coordinator, and Chemical Hygiene Officer, Fucillo’s goal is to make workflows “easier, less expensive, more desirable, and more comfortable.”

netbet sports bettingFucillo was key for the Department’s successful move into its new home when Building 68 was completed in 1994, according to Mitchell Galanek, MIT Radiation Protection Officer and Fucillo’s colleague for over 30 years. 

Throughout his time as a building manager, Fucillo has decreased routine spending and increased sustainability. He lowered the cost of lab coats by a whopping 92%–from $2,600 to $200–with just one phone call to North Star, the building’s uniform/linens provider. Auditing the building’s plastic waste generation inspired the institute-wide MIT Lab Plastics Recycling Program, which now serves over 200 labs across campus. More than 50,000 lbs of plastic have been recycled in the last four years alone. 

“John is not a cog in the wheel, but an integral part of the whole system,” says Anthony Fuccione, Technical Instructor and Manager of the Biology Teaching lab.

Connecting and leading 

Fucillo says one of his favorite parts of the job is chatting with researchers and helping them achieve their goals. He reportedly clocks about 10,000 steps per day on campus, responding to requests from labs, collaborating with colleagues, and connecting Biology to the institute’s Environment, Health, & Safety office.

“John is called upon — literally and figuratively — morning, noon, and night,” says Whitehead Professor of Molecular Genetics Monty Krieger. “He has had to become an expert in so very many areas to support staff, faculty, and students. His enormous success is due in part to his technical talents, in part to his genuine care for the welfare of his colleagues, and in part to his very special and caring personality.” 

When MIT needed to comply with the EPA’s decree to improve safety standards across campus, Fucillo sat on the committees tasked with meeting those standards while avoiding undue burden on researchers, establishing the Environmental Health and Safety Management system in 2002.

“From a safety perspective, that was one of the most challenging things MIT had to go through–but it came out at the end a better, safer, place,” says John Collins, EHS Project Technician and friend and colleague to Fucillo for over 20 years.

Fucillo later co-led the initiative for a 2011 overhaul of MIT’s management of regulated medical waste (RMW), such as Petri dishes, blood, and needles. Fucillo volunteered to pilot a new approach in Building 68 — despite a lukewarm response to the proposal from other Biology EHS representatives, according to Galanek. This abundantly successful management system is now used by all MIT departments that generate RMW. It’s not only less expensive, but also does a better job at decontaminating waste than the previous management system.

“Anyone who has worked with John during his MIT career understands it is truly a privilege to partner with him,” Galanek says. “Not only does the work get done and done well, but you also gain a friend along the way.”

After consolidating a disparate group of individual lab assistants, Fucillo took on a supervisory role for the centralized staff tasked with cleaning glassware, preparing media, and ensuring consistency and sterility across Building 68 labs. 

According to maintenance mechanic James “Jimmy” Carr, “you can’t find a better boss.”

“He’s just an easy-going guy,” says Karen O’Leary, who has worked with Fucillo for over 30 years. “My voice matters–I feel heard and respected by him.” 

Looking forward

Although there are still many updates Fucillo hopes to see in Building 68, which will soon celebrate its 30th birthday, he is taking steps to cut back on his workload. 

He recently began passing on his knowledge to Facilities Manager and EHS Coordinator Cesar Duarte, who joined the department in 2023.

“It’s been a pleasure working alongside John and learning about the substantial role and responsibility he’s had in the Biology department for the last three decades,” Duarte says. “Not only is John’s knowledge of Building 68 and the department’s history unparalleled, but his dedication to MIT and continued care and commitment to the health and well-being of the Biology community throughout his career are truly remarkable.”

As he winds down his time at MIT, Fucillo hopes to spend more time on music, one of his earliest passions, which began when he picked up an accordion in first grade. He still plays guitar and bass nearly every day. When he rocks out at home more often, he’ll be leaving behind the foundations of innovation, leadership, and respect in Building 68.