Whitehead Institute graduate student researchers Christopher Giuliano and Julian Roessler have been awarded the 2024 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. In addition, postdoctoral researcher Chen Weng was selected as a finalist in the postdoctoral fellows competition.<\/p>\n
The Regeneron Prize, sponsored by global biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a competitive award designed to recognize and honor exceptional talent and originality in biomedical research. Individual graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the biomedical sciences are nominated by the nation\u2019s top research universities. Then, nominees outline their “Dream Projects” \u2014 potentially groundbreaking research projects that they would pursue given unrestricted access to resources and state-of-the-art technology.<\/p>\n
The \u201cDream Project\u201d proposals, presented by the nominees to a selection committee comprised of Regeneron\u2019s leading scientists, are used to evaluate a trainee\u2019s scientific merit, elegance, precision, and creativity. Novel research ideas and out-of-the-box thinking is encouraged \u2014 although the proposal must include a strong rationale, basic methodology and design for the project, and a discussion of how its results could advance the field. Both Giuliano and Roessler have been awarded $50,000 for their proposals, which can be used in any way the winners choose. In addition, Weng was awarded $5,000 as a finalist, and Regeneron has made a $10,000 grant to the Whitehead Institute as the home institute of the winners to support its seminar series.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s awards are distinctive in that the two winners are from the same institution: Both Giuliano and Roessler are pursuing their PhDs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and conducting their doctoral research at Whitehead Institute.<\/p>\n
Giuliano is a researcher in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Sebastian Lourido, who is also an associate professor of biology at MIT and holds the Landon Clay Career Development Chair at Whitehead Institute. Giuliano\u2019s Dream Project seeks to address the unique challenges posed by genetically based muscle disorders. \u201cAn obstacle in using current gene therapies to treat these conditions,\u201d he explains, \u201cis that muscle tissue comprises large syncytial cells, which contain hundreds of nuclei in a shared cytoplasm. Even when a gene therapy is able to reach an individual muscle cell, it often isn\u2019t able to spread to every nucleus within that cell.\u201d However, certain parasites, like Toxoplasma gondii, thrive because they have the capacity to successfully gain access to and manipulate muscle cells. T. gondii, the primary focus of the Lourido lab\u2019s work, may infect nearly one third of all humans. \u201cMy project,\u201d Giuliano says, \u201cwould identify the specific biological mechanisms used by the parasites to spread their virulence factor proteins throughout the cell. Using genetic screens for protein spread, we would work toward applying these protein features to improve the efficiency of muscle-directed gene therapies, and ultimately test our system in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roessler is a researcher in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Sini\u0161a Hrvatin, who is also an assistant professor of biology at MIT. While Roessler\u2019s doctoral research focuses on the neuronal circuitry underlying torpor and hibernation in small mammals, his Dream Project seeks to identify the sensory circuitry regulating the \u201cdiving reflex\u201d displayed in land- and sea-dwelling mammals, including humans. The diving reflex occurs when an animal\u2019s face is immersed in cold water, prompting an array of organs to reduce their function in ways that, scientists believe, privileges the flow of oxygen to the brain and muscles. \u201cThat this reflex has been conserved across millions of years of mammalian evolution suggests an extraordinary genetic advantage,\u201d Roessler says. \u201cYet, researchers have given comparatively little attention to the neuronal circuits underlying this reflex, and we don\u2019t understand even the fundamental mechanisms by which the nervous system coincidently detects both cold temperature and the presence of water.\u201d Beyond elucidating a foundational aspect of mammalian biology, Roessler\u2019s projects could, if pursued, underpin new interventions for conditions ranging from migraine headaches to cardiac arrhythmia that might be ameliorated by artificial stimulation or inhibition of the diving response.<\/p>\n
Weng is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman, who is also a professor of biology at MIT, the Landon T. Clay Professor of Biology at Whitehead Institute, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His Dream Project \u2014 which proposes a new approach to using single-cell genealogy to understand factors driving cell line evolution \u2014 is an extension of his current work. Indeed, this past year he co-developed a technology that details the family trees of human blood cells and provides new insights into the differences between lineages of hematopoietic stem cells. The technology gives researchers unprecedented access to any human cells\u2019 histories \u2014 and a path to resolving previously unanswerable questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whitehead Institute graduate student researchers Christopher Giuliano and Julian Roessler have been awarded the 2024 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. In addition, postdoctoral researcher Chen Weng was selected as a finalist in the postdoctoral fellows competition. The Regeneron Prize, sponsored by global biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a competitive award designed to recognize and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1783,"featured_media":29684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6217,6226,6240],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-honors-fellowships","category-biograds","category-whitehead-institute-faculty-locations","placement-placement-homepage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n