Scientist to Watch

Ana Teresa Freitas discussed how individual variation in vitamin D synthesis and metabolism influences susceptibility to upper respiratory viruses.

As alternatives to insecticides, Omar Akbari uses sophisticated genetic engineering methods to solve the world’s mosquito problems.

The University of Chicago cell biologist is studying how the nutrients available to cancers influence their growth. 

At the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, the developmental biologist is probing the maternal-fetal interface across mammalian species.

The University of Miami researcher studies how a mysterious group of supersized viruses infects and influences the evolution of their hosts.

The Duke University cell biologist uses live-cell microscopy to reveal how brain cells rid themselves of damaged mitochondria and what goes wrong in neurodegenerative disease.

The Boston University neuroscientist wants to take the edge off traumatic memories by manipulating how they’re processed in the brain.

The MIT biologist studies how RNA molecules self-assemble and the role these accumulations may play in diseases such as ALS and Huntington’s.

The Middlebury College neuroscientist explores enzymes that affect brain cell development and neurodegeneration.

At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the cancer biologist is combining research into the tumor microenvironment with the principles of neuroscience to tease apart how cancers grow—and how to stop them.

The Georgetown University biologist studies how climate change contributes to the emergence of new zoonotic threats.

The molecular biologist studies how chemical modifications to RNA building blocks change the way RNA regulates complex cellular processes.

The University of Guelph neuroscientist is scoping out the brain regions and genes that change as a consequence of pain that lasts for months or even years.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne evolutionary neurobiologist is using Drosophila to investigate how organisms adapt to novel environments.

The Rockefeller University geneticist is tracing the full lifespan of individual cells to better understand how and why humans age.

The University of Southern California bioengineer studies how lizards regrow their tails, with the goal of one day inducing regeneration in humans.

This University of California, Santa Cruz, biologist is dedicated to her marine mammal research, as well as to making the field more diverse and equitable.

The University of California, Santa Barbara, cell biologist is investigating the formation and functions of the peroxisome, an organelle which exists in many copies in each cell and can be created, lost, or altered to meet the cell’s metabolic needs.

The Northwestern University researcher studies how adaptive immune cells influence neurodegenerative disease.