Hear from Some of Our Excellence and Odyssey Awardees

Cristina Aguayo-Mazzucato, MD, PhD
2021 Excellence Awardee
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Assistant Investigator, Joslin Diabetes Center

Researchers in the lab of Cristina Aguayo-Mazzucato have demonstrated that people with type 2 diabetes experience an accelerated rate of cellular aging. However, according to Dr. Aguayo-Mazzucato, “exercise is a very effective way to render cells to function with a younger profile.” Her lab seeks to understand the accelerated aging process of people with type 2 diabetes. Eventually, these findings may translate to clinical applications that can slow or reverse the aging process.

Lillian Fritz-Laylin, PhD
2019 Excellence Awardee
Associate Professor of Biology, University of Massachusetts – Amherst

According to Dr. Lillian Fritz-Laylin, over 99% of organisms in our world are underexplored. She and her lab are evaluating the shapeshifting mechanisms of two specific parasites to find out if existing scientific knowledge applies to these parasites—or if they are governed by a completely different set of rules. “We get to see something that nobody’s ever seen before. It’s intoxicating.”

Liang Liang, PhD
2021 Excellence Awardee
Assistant Professor Neuroscience, Yale University

After seeing an optical illusion in high school, Dr. Liang Liang became curious about how the brain processes visual information. “[It] takes multiple stages of visual processing in the brain to gradually combine…simple features into something more complex and meaningful.” Her lab aims to understand visual computation to support the development of treatments for conditions like blindness.

Sibongile Mafu, PhD
2018 Excellence Awardee
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Fungal diseases are a growing threat to plants, animals, and humans in a myriad of ways. Dr. Sibongile Mafu wants to understand how plants adapt to their changing environments and use that knowledge to ensure the sustainability of our food system. “Understanding that enables us to be able to build more resilient plants that are going to be able to adapt to the different climate changes and other challenges we may be facing.”

Amity L. Manning, PhD
2017 Excellence Awardee
Associate Professor, Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

“There’s still so much we don’t understand about how cells divide,” says Dr. Amity Manning. She and her colleagues are working to understand the details of cell division as well as how this process goes awry. Their findings could inform the development of powerful cancer therapies.

Babak Momeni, PhD
2017 Excellence Awardee
Assistant Professor of Microbial Systems Biology, Boston College

Not all microbes are disease-carrying enemies, according to Dr. Babak Momeni. From bench science to mathematical modeling, his lab is exploring microbial interactions and how they might be useful in the prevention and treatment of antibiotic resistant illnesses.

José Ordovás-Montañés, PhD
2019 Excellence Awardee
Research Faculty, Division of Gastroenterology,
Boston Children’s Hospital

Dr. José Ordovás-Montañés and his colleagues did not know that they would be studying SARS-COV-2 when this work began, as it didn’t yet exist. Their work evolved to study the differences in the nasal cells collected through the nasopharyngeal swabs used to diagnose COVID-19 infections, yielding fascinating results.

Bryan Q. Spring, PhD
2017 Excellence Awardee
Professor of Biomedical Physics, Northeastern University

Professor Spring’s calm approach impacts both the energy in his interdisciplinary lab and his vision for the future of oncology.

Gowthaman Uthaman, PhD
2021 Excellence Awardee
Assistant Professor of Pathology, UMass Chan Medical School

Could the future be one without severe allergic disease? Gowthaman Uthaman thinks so. “Our lab has discovered a cell type that is present in those severe allergic individuals that is not present in the general population,” explains Dr. Uthaman. He and his colleagues were then able to remove those cells in mouse models. Their findings could lead to better treatment and prevention of allergic disease.

Seychelle Vos, PhD
2021 Excellence Awardee
Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowki Scholar

How do all our cells use the same DNA sequence and yet end up so varied? Seychelle Vos and her colleagues are investigating this fundamental question of biology. They hypothesize that understanding how DNA works can lead to the development of targeted therapeutics for developmental disorders and cancers. “There’s so much that we don’t understand,” says Dr. Vos, “and every time we gain a little bit more knowledge, we just realize there’s a lot more out there that we have to learn.”

Lydia Bourouiba, PhD
2018 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor, The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, Fluids and Health Network, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Existing mental models of how pathogens move from host to host while remaining virulent are outdated, according to Lydia Bourouiba. Using an interdisciplinary approach, she and her colleagues seek to shift the paradigm of understanding of the spread of infectious disease. The ultimate goal of their research is to “stop the transmission of infectious diseases and develop tools to tackle the path of transmission from one host to the other.”

Marcelo Dietrich, PhD
2021 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor of Comparative Medicine, Yale University

What role does nurture play in early mammalian development? Marcelo Dietrich is investigating the brain mechanisms that connect an infant and their caretaker. “Understanding early life,” says Dr. Dietrich, “can help us understand our own health and the long-term impact that early childhood has on human health.”

Jenna Galloway, PhD
2021 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor of Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital

Why can a zebrafish, an organism with surprising similarities to humans, regenerate to their original form and function after injury, but a human cannot? Jenna Galloway and her colleagues aim to learn how. By identifying the differences in cell types and active pathways between zebrafish and mammals, the Galloway lab’s findings could lead to breakthroughs in orthopedic medicine.

Gene-Wei Li, PhD
2016 Excellence Awardee, 2020 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“Oftentimes, what makes a cell have a disease is the amount of proteins that are dysregulated,” says Dr. Gene-Wei Li. This is why he and his lab are working to glean information from genomic data to better understand protein production and cellular function.

Sebastian Lourido, PhD
2021 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor Biology, Whitehead Institute

In Sebastian Lourido’s native Colombia, infectious disease continues to be a major public health burden and barrier to development. By studying the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, Dr. Lourido and his colleagues have identified the process by which a parasitic infection transitions from acute to chronic. The Lourido lab is working to reverse the infection back to the treatable acute state “not only to impact global health, but to understand new fundamental aspects of biology.”

Meenakshi Rao, MD, PhD
2020 Odyssey Awardee
Boston Children’s Hospital

The digestive system has its very own branch of the nervous system. Dr. Meenakshi Rao’s lab aims to expand our understanding of how it works to inform the diagnosis and treatment of digestive disorders. “My hope is that we can build on some of these observations we’re making in the lab and apply them to advancing human health in very tangible ways.”

Jessica Whited, PhD
2019 Odyssey Awardee
Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University

Over 2 million Americans have undergone limb loss. Nonetheless, prosthetic technology is still too limiting for Dr. Whited’s taste. Her lab’s study of salamanders could lead to the ultimate innovation—full limb regeneration.

Andrew Wang, MD/PhD, AB
2021 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
(Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology), Yale University

So many more people experience allergic and autoimmune disease today than in the past, and Andrew Wang and his colleagues want to find out why. The Wang lab is exploring the immune system response to changes in our environment, including sleep, food, and stress. “When we published our acute stress story,” Dr. Wang explains, “a lot of patients felt very validated that what they were experiencing, [that] there was some explanation for it.” The results of this research are likely to introduce new therapeutic possibilities.

Wesley P. Wong, PhD
2019 Odyssey Awardee
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

“My lab develops ways to look at, visualize, and manipulate molecules in order to understand how they work and how they fail with disease,” says Dr. Wesley Wong. Their findings may lead to new treatments for a variety of diseases, including cancer and diabetes.