In July, 21 NIEHS trainees won the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE). Now in its 23rd year, the award recognizes outstanding achievement by junior researchers and the scientists who train them.
“Receiving the FARE is an exceptional honor for our trainees and for the institute as it signifies the elite caliber of research being conducted at NIEHS,” said Tammy Collins, Ph.D., director of the NIEHS Office of Fellows Career Development. “Warmest congratulations to all of the winners and their mentors, as well as to the dozens of other fellows who put in the time and effort to submit abstracts for the competition.”
NIH said the judges considered scientific merit, originality, experimental design, and overall quality and presentation of the abstracts.
High marks for fellows
Names are removed from the abstracts before the FARE judges evaluate them to prevent potential biases. Only the top 25 percent win recognition.
The awards include a $1,500 stipend to attend a scientific meeting, which gives the winners an opportunity to present their research as either a poster or an oral presentation.
“NIEHS fellows performed particularly well this year, with our institute ranking third highest among all the NIH institutes,” said NIEHS Scientific Director Darryl Zeldin, M.D., referring to the percent of applicants who received awards. “That’s a real testament to the exceptional level of work being done by our fellows.”
(Ian Thomas is a public affairs specialist with the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison, and a regular contributor to the Environmental Factor.)
Jonathan Busada, Ph.D. — “Endogenous Glucocorticoids Are Required to Suppress Spontaneous Gastric Inflammation and Spasmolytic Polypeptide Expressing Metaplasia in the Mouse,” mentored by John Cidlowski, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Signal Transduction Laboratory.
Helen B. Chin, Ph.D. — “A Longitudinal Analysis of Ovarian Growth in Girls from Birth to 9 Months and Its Association With Infant Feeding Type,” mentored by Donna Baird, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Women’s Health Group.
Joanne Damborsky, Ph.D. — “Cholinergic-GABAergic Interactions in the Hippocamposeptal Pathway,” mentored by Jerry Yakel, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Neurobiology Laboratory.
Yi Fang, Ph.D. — “SIRT1 Regulates Cardiomyocyte Alignment and Contraction During Maturation in Part Through Deacetylation of ACTN2,” mentored by Xiaoling Li, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Metabolism, Genes, and Environment Group.
Chunfang Gu, Ph.D. — “PPIP5K Regulates Serine, Glycine and One Carbon Metabolism: A New Cancer Therapy Target?” mentored by Stephen Shears, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Inositol Signaling Group.
Hao Hu, Ph.D. — 'Nuclear Receptor Communications: PXR Coordinates RORa and HNF4a to Regulate the SULT1E1 gene,” mentored by Masahiko Negishi, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Pharmacogenetics Group.
Kai Kang, Ph.D. — “CDSeq: A Novel Deconvolution Method to Dissect Heterogeneity Using Bulk RNA-seq Data,” mentored by Leping Li, Ph.D., acting deputy branch chief of the NIEHS Biostatistics and Computational Biology Branch.
Lee Langer, Ph.D. — “BAF47: A New Mechanism for Tumor Suppression?” mentored by Trevor Archer, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology Laboratory.
Yu-Hua Lo, Ph.D. — “ATPase Activity of the AAA-Protein NVL2 Regulates Its Communication With Cofactors During Ribosome Biogenesis,” mentored by Robin Stanley, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Nucleolar Integrity Group.
Yong-Moon Park, M.D., Ph.D. — “Nocturnal Light Exposure While Sleeping and Risk of Obesity in U.S. Women,” mentored by Dale Sandler, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Epidemiology Branch.
Maria Petrillo, Ph.D. — “Beta-Arrestin 1: A Novel Player in the Glucocorticoid Receptor Activity,” mentored by John Cidlowski, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Signal Transduction Laboratory.
Yufeng Qin, Ph.D. — “An Obesity-Associated Gut Microbiome Reprograms the Intestinal Epigenome and Leads to Altered Colonic Gene Expression,” mentored by Paul Wade, Ph.D., deputy chief of the NIEHS Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology Group.
Prashant Rai, Ph.D. — “Immunity-Related GTPase Irgm1 Guards Against Interferonopathy Through Mitochondrial Maintenance,” mentored by Michael Fessler, M.D., head of the NIEHS Clinical Investigation of Host Defense Group.
Sreenivasa Ramaiahgari, Ph.D. — “Functional Characterization of Human and Rat 3D Hepatocyte Models and Application of High-Throughput Transcriptomics (S1500 plus) in Toxicology Screening,” mentored by Stephen Ferguson, Ph.D., head of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Molecular Toxicology and Genomics Group.
Cynthia Sakofsky, Ph.D. — “Hypermutation Associated With Bursts of Double-Strand Breaks,” mentored by Dmitry Gordenin, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Mechanisms of Genome Dynamics Group.
Natale Sciolino, Ph.D. — “A Locus Coeruleus to Lateral Hypothalamus Circuit for Suppression of Feeding,” mentored by Patricia Jensen, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Developmental Neurobiology Group.
Elise Smith, Ph.D. — 'Complexity of Multidisciplinary Norms in Collaborative Teams; Epistemic Diversity in Authorship Distribution Ethics,” mentored by David Resnik, J.D., Ph.D., bioethicist and chair of the NIEHS Institutional Review Board.
Sheng Song, Ph.D. — “Dysfunction of Noradrenergic System Induces alpha-Synucleinopathy and Neuronal Loss from Gut to Brain,” mentored by Jau-Shyong Hong, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Neuropharmacology Group.
Heather Vellers, Ph.D. — “Association Between Mitochondrial DNA Sequence and DNA Damage in Response to Endurance Training in Mice,” mentored by Steven Kleeberger, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Genetic Susceptibility in Lung Disease Group.
Sing Wai Wong, D.D.S. — “Unravelling the Role of Autophagy Machinery in Osteoclastogenesis,” mentored by Jennifer Martinez, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Inflammation and Autoimmunity Group.
Miaofei Xu, Ph.D. — “Mitochondrial Genomic Alterations in Spontaneous and Chemical-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinomas in B6C3F1/N mice,” mentored by Arun Pandiri, Ph.D., head of the NTP Molecular Pathology Group.
