NIH Director's Early Independence Award Program - …...technologies to detect key molecular features of immune responses, and in translating those insights into novel strategies to

8/11/17, 12(40 PMNIH Director's Early Independence Award Program - 2016 Early Independence Award Recipients | NIH Common Fund

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Jonathan Abraham, M.D., Ph.D.

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Project Title: Antibody Therapeutics for Human Viral

Hemorrhagic Fevers and Prevention of Late Neurological

Syndromes

Grant ID: DP5-OD-023084

Jonathan Abraham is an Instructor in Biological Chemistry and

Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and a

Clinical and Research Fellow in Infectious Diseases at Brigham

and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He

obtained his B.A. at Harvard College, his M.D. and Ph.D.

degrees in the Harvard-MIT combined M.D.-Ph.D. program, and completed residency in

Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research focuses on the human

antibody response to emerging viruses using structural biology, molecular virology, and

immunology.

Marie-Abèle Bind, Sc.D.

Harvard School of Public Health

Project Title: Transporting Established Insights from Classical

Experimental Design to Address Causal Questions in

Environmental Epidemiology including the Understanding of

Biological Mediating Mechanisms


Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health

Sciences

Dr. Marie-Abèle Bind earned her joint Sc.D. degree in Environmental Health and Biostatistics at

the Harvard School of Public Health. Subsequently, she worked as a postdoctoral Ziff Fellow at

the Harvard University Center for the Environment with Prof. D. Rubin and estimated causal

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effects of extreme weather exposures on health under the Rubin Causal Model. Dr. Marie-

Abèle Bind is a Research Associate in the Statistics Department at the Faculty of Arts and

Sciences, Harvard University. Her research focuses on transporting classical experimental

insights into the field of environmental epidemiology, as well as developing new causal

inference methods to address causality when examining the effects of environmental

exposures (e.g., air pollution and extreme weather) on health in complex settings (e.g., missing

data and big data).

Jacob O. Brunkard, Ph.D.

University of California, Berkeley and USDA ARS Plant Gene

Expression Center

Project Title: An Aminoacyl tRNA Synthetase is a Nitrogen

Sensor that Activates TOR in Plants


Jacob Brunkard is a researcher in UC Berkeley’s Plant and

Microbial Biology Department and the USDA Agricultural

Research Service’s Plant Gene Expression Center. Dr. Brunkard

conducted his doctoral research with advisor Dr. Pat Zambryski at UC Berkeley, and earned his

B.A. in Biology and History with high honors from Swarthmore College. His doctoral

dissertation investigated intercellular communication in plants and chloroplast redox

signaling. Dr. Brunkard’s group is focused on the TOR metabolic signaling network in plant

development and physiology, emphasizing insights into the evolution of TOR signaling

networks across eukaryotes.

Brandon DeKosky, Ph.D.

The University of Kansas

Project Title: Comprehensive Analysis of Human Adaptive

Immune Receptors to Elucidate Correlates of Epstein-Barr Virus

Disease Suppression


Brandon DeKosky is an assistant professor at the Departments

of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Chemical & Petroleum

Engineering at the University of Kansas. He also is affiliated

with the Kansas Vaccine Institute in the KU School of Pharmacy. Brandon attained his Ph.D. in

the lab of George Georgiou at the University of Texas at Austin where he developed the first





technology for high-throughput sequencing of complete antibody variable regions from single

B cells, providing an entirely new window for understanding immune responses to vaccination

and disease. Brandon performed his postdoctoral studies in the lab of John Mascola at the

NIAID Vaccine Research Center, where he applied high-throughput immune technologies to

accelerate development of vaccines and therapeutics against HIV, Ebola virus, and Zika virus.

Brandon’s lab at KU specializes in the invention and application of high-throughput immune

technologies to detect key molecular features of immune responses, and in translating those

insights into novel strategies to combat human diseases.

Sherrie J. Divito, M.D., Ph.D.

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Project Title: Investigating a Novel Cell Population in Delayed-

Onset Drug Hypersensitivity Reactions


Sherrie Divito received her MD and PhD (Immunology) from

the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Medical

Scientist Training Program. Her graduate work focused on

cellular therapeutics, dendritic cell biology, and T cell effector responses in transplantation.

She completed dermatology residency in the research track at Harvard, then joined the faculty

at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Divito’s lab performs

translational research, utilizing patient samples and humanized mouse models, with the direct

goal of improving patient care. The lab currently leverages innovative technologies and assays

to investigate the immune system in delayed-type drug allergies.

Jesse R. Dixon, M.D., Ph.D.

Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Project Title: Mechanisms of Formation of 3D Genome

Structures


Jesse Dixon is a faculty fellow in the Salk Helmsley Fellows

program at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. Prior to

joining Salk, Jesse completed his M.D. and Ph.D. at the

University of California at San Diego. During his Ph.D., Jesse

worked in the laboratory of Bing Ren studying higher order chromatin structure. Jesse’s lab is

interested in how our genomes are organized in 3D space inside the nucleus and how





alterations to 3D genome structure can influence the development of human disease.

Valentino M. Gantz, Ph.D.

University of California, San Diego

Project Title: Development, Characterization and Application

of CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Drive Technologies and Related Active

Genetic Elements to Benefit Research and Society at Large


Valentino Gantz is a Postdoctoral researcher in the Biological

Sciences division at UC San Diego. During his time as a

graduate student at UCSD, Valentino conceived and tested a

new application of the CRISPR/Cas system. The resulting

technology, the mutagenic chain reaction or MCR, is a new

method that allows MCR-type "active" genetic elements to be propagated at double the

expected frequency. In brief, in the germline of animals heterozygous for an "active"

transgene, the element is capable of converting the second chromosome leading to

homozygosity. This genetic behavior, also known as gene drive, holds great promise for basic

research, fighting insect-borne diseases and crop pest control. In a fruitful collaboration with

the James Lab at UC Irvine, Valentino helped bring this technology to a mosquito system, with

the end goal of using gene drive to modify a mosquito population not to be competent to carry

the malarial parasite. Valentino has also been involved with the UCSD Biosafety Committee in

outlining the UCSD safety guidelines for the cautious use of “active genetics” technologies in

the laboratory and, among his colleagues, they are progressing towards the establishment of

national guidelines.

Daniel P. Giovenco, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Project Title: Geographic Variation in the Diverse Tobacco Retail

Environment and Its Impact on Tobacco Use Disparities


Daniel Giovenco completed his undergraduate degree at The

College of New Jersey and received both his M.P.H. and Ph.D.

from the Rutgers School of Public Health, where he trained

under Dr. Cristine Delnevo in the Center for Tobacco Studies.

His research uses geographical information systems, field data collection, and survey data to





uncover how community characteristics, such as the tobacco retail environment, influence

racial and ethnic disparities in substance use. Dr. Giovenco is an Assistant Professor in the

Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public

Health.

Kristen Koenig, Ph.D.

Harvard University

Project Title: Investigating Organ Formation and the Emergence

of Complexity in the Visual System Using Comparative

Developmental Approaches


Kristen Koenig received a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology

and History from University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D.

in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at

Austin. At University of Texas, Kristen worked in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Gross to develop the

squid, Doryteuthis pealeii as a system to study the evolution and development of complex

visual systems. Currently Kristen is a John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellow at the FAS

Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. The Koenig Lab is interested in using

comparative developmental, cellular and genetic approaches to study visual systems as a

model for understanding the emergence of organ complexity.

Aashish Manglik, M.D., Ph.D.

Stanford University School of Medicine

Project Title: Molecular Mechanisms of Iron Homeostasis


Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Aashish Manglik is currently the first Stanford Distinguished

Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. He received

B.A. degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Washington

University in St. Louis followed by an M.D. and a Ph.D. in

Biophysics from Stanford University. His graduate research under the

mentorship of Brian Kobilka focused on the structural and biophysical basis of G protein-

coupled receptor signaling. Now, the Manglik lab aims to understand the molecular basis of

transmembrane signaling and transport using a broad range of methods in structural biology,

protein biophysics, pharmacology, and protein engineering.





Micaela Elvira Martinez, Ph.D.

Princeton University

Project Title: Hacking Epidemics: Unlocking the Drivers of

Transmission Seasonality to Battle Vaccine-Preventable

Diseases


Micaela E. Martinez ( ) is currently a

National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology in

the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Princeton

University, and a Postdoctoral Affiliate of the Global Health Program in the Woodrow Wilson

School of Public & International Affairs. She earned a Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of

Michigan Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, a B.S. in Biology, and a B.S. in

Mathematics from the University of Alaska Southeast. She uses cutting-edge statistical

methods and dynamic models to deconstruct epidemics and reveal information about host-to-

host transmission of viral infections, immunity in the population, and vaccine efficacy. She

works at the intersection of epidemiology, computational biology, chronobiology (i.e., the study

of biological rhythms), and ecology. Her traditional training in biology, coupled with research in

computational/applied mathematics and statistical inference, has allowed her to develop a

unique expertise: leveraging Big Epidemiological Data to unmask population-level biological

processes that impact human health.

Monica Mugnier, Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins University

Project Title: Variant Surface Glycoprotein Diversification

in Trypanosoma brucei


Monica Mugnier received her undergraduate degree in

Biochemistry from Tufts University and went on to do her Ph.D.

at Rockefeller University in the lab of Dr. Nina Papavasiliou. In

Dr. Papavasiliou’s lab, Monica studied the protozoan

parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which is the causative agent of

African trypanosomiasis, a devastating disease posing a huge

economic and public health burden on sub-Saharan Africa. During her Ph.D., Monica

developed bioinformatics tools for studying the way this parasite evades recognition by its

https://memartinez.org



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hosts’ immune systems. Now, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular

Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her

lab will focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms of immune evasion in T. brucei.

Steve Ramirez, Ph.D.

Harvard University

Project Title: Artificially Modulating Memories to Alleviate

Psychiatric Disease-Like States


Steve Ramirez is a Junior Fellow and Principle Investigator at

Harvard University. He received his B.A. in neuroscience from Boston University and began

researching learning and memory in the laboratory of Howard Eichenbaum. He went on to

receive his Ph.D. in neuroscience in the laboratory of Susumu Tonegawa at MIT, where his work

focused on artificially modulating memories in the rodent brain, and his current work focuses

on leveraging these manipulations to alleviate symptoms associated with psychiatric diseases.

Steve has also received the Smithsonian's American Ingenuity award, National Geographic's

Breakthrough Explorer prize, Forbes and Technology Review's Top 35 Innovators Under 35

award, and has given a TED talk.

Aaron Ring, M.D., Ph.D.

Yale University School of Medicine

Project Title: Uncoupling Pleiotropy in the

LIGHT/HVEM/LTBetaR Signaling Network


Aaron Ring received his undergraduate training at Yale

University and entered the Stanford Medical Scientist Training

Program for his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. At Stanford, he worked

in the laboratories of K. Christopher Garcia and

Irving Weissman to use structure-based protein engineering to develop new cytokine and

immune checkpoint therapies for cancer. Aaron joined the faculty of the Yale Department

of Immunobiology in 2016 as the Robert T. McCluskey Yale Scholar and Assistant Professor.

The focus of his research is to understand and manipulate the activity of immune receptors

using structural and combinatorial biology approaches.





Matthew H. Spitzer, Ph.D.

University of California, San Francisco

Project Title: Quantitatively Modeling Immune Responses to

Cancer


Matt completed his training in Immunology at Stanford

University in the laboratories of Garry Nolan and

Edgar Engleman. There, he developed experimental and

analytical methods to model the state of the immune system

using high dimensional single-cell data. This led Matt to develop the first reference map of the

immune system, providing a framework into which new data can be integrated and compared

for system-wide analysis. He has also developed new strategies for inducing powerful immune

responses against cancer. Matt’s lab combines methods in experimental immunology and

cancer biology with computation to understand the modes in which the immune system can

respond to tumors and to rationally initiate curative immune responses against cancer.

Kevin Yackle, M.D., Ph.D.

University of California, San Francisco

Project Title: Cellular and Molecular Identification of the

Breathing Pacemaker Neurons


Kevin Yackle is currently a Sandler Faculty Fellow in the

Department of Physiology at UCSF. Previously, he earned his

M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Stanford University under the

supervision of Mark Krasnow. Kevin created the first systematic

molecular map of the neurons that generate the breathing

rhythm and demonstrated that small numbers of molecularly

distinct neurons have dedicated, interesting, and important functions in breathing. At UCSF,

the Yackle lab will adapt new methods to extend upon the molecular map in order to identify

the key neurons that generate the breathing rhythm, with the ultimate goal of transforming

medical fields like neonatology by developing a novel approach to control breathing

pharmacologically.

This page last reviewed on July 31, 2017

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NIH Director's Early Independence Award Program - …...technologies to detect key molecular features of immune responses, and in translating those insights into novel strategies to