Binding Molecules to Release their Full Potential

Lyle Isaacs

Binding Molecules to Release their Full Potential

Synthesizing molecular containers that can change and improve the properties of multiple biomedical drugs
Lyle Isaacs, University of Maryland College Park Campus
Dr. Isaacs is a highly-cited researcher with an immense passion for pushing the frontier of chemistry as well as fostering the next generation of chemists to carry on their own searches for new exciting molecules. He takes his position as an educator to heart by supporting all of his students’ own ...

Fighting the Influenza Virus

Peter Palese

Fighting the Influenza Virus

Developing a universal influenza virus vaccine and a broad-spectrum antiviral
Peter Palese, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Worldwide, seasonal influenza outbreaks amount to between 3-5 million cases of severe illness, with 250-300 thousand of those cases resulting in deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Dr. Peter Palese has spent the last four decades as a virologist researching various aspects of the inf ...

Building a Foundation for the Next Generation's Quantum Technologies

Monika Schleier-Smith

Building a Foundation for the Next Generation's Quantum Technologies

Dr. Schleier-Smith's research with laser-cooled atoms pushes the frontier of quantum technologies
Monika Schleier-Smith, Stanford University
A recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Dr. Schleier-Smith combines a desire to push the frontiers of knowledge with a keen awareness of the power of fundamental research to transform technology. Her track record includes surpassing the standard quantum limit on the stability of an a ...

Uncovering Hidden Viruses

Mya Breitbart

Uncovering Hidden Viruses

Identifying the causative agents for diseases in marine animals
Mya Breitbart, University of South Florida
Dr. Mya Breitbart, Associate Professor in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida is identifying new disease-causing viruses in marine animals by studying chronic infections, investigating the causes of mortality events in captive and wild marine mammals, and rapidly respond ...

Making Technology Safe

Sheila Baker

Making Technology Safe

Alleviating the harmful by-products of industry for healthier technological advancement
Sheila Baker, University of Missouri-Columbia
Dr. Sheila Baker, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Missouri, is using science and technology to find solutions to the missing links so that technology can and will equal progress. Technological advancement is no longer forward progress ...

Focusing on the Whole Patient

Claire Snyder

Focusing on the Whole Patient

Using data collection and coordination to improve quality of life
Claire Snyder, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Claire Snyder of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health aims to transform cancer care by making patients' well being just as much a part of treatment monitoring as laboratory tests, imaging studies, and other clinical information. Dr. Snyde ...

Molecular Choreography

Elad Harel

Molecular Choreography

Seeing molecules dance at the extremes of time, space, and energy
Elad Harel, Northwestern University
The impact of Dr. Harel's research is to inform the design of novel materials with unprecedented functionality. While his research is fundamental, it has far reaching consequences for controlling matter at the molecular length scale. The structures of atoms and molecules are well-understood, but h ...

The Computer Scientist

Mohammed Zaki

The Computer Scientist

Meaning extraction from large-scale and diverse information and data sources
Mohammed Zaki, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Zaki's highly technical research is grounded in real-world applications, especially in bioinformatics, and social and citation networks. For example, in bioinformatics tremendous gains are possible when scientists simultaneously mine the data from genomes, protein structures and networks, metabo ...

Defending Against Natural Disasters

Amy Cerato

Defending Against Natural Disasters

Providing sustainable foundation systems that protect against multi-hazards
Amy Cerato, University of Oklahoma
Dr. Amy Cerato, Rapp Foundation Presidential Professor of the University of Oklahoma's Civil Engineering and Environmental Science Department is designing, testing and implementing resilient and sustainable foundation systems that will anchor our nation's infrastructure and allow it to withstand a ...

Understanding Mitochondria May Increase Healthspan

Gerald Shadel

Understanding Mitochondria May Increase Healthspan

Dr. Shadel studies the unique aspects of mitochondria that affect aging and disease processes
Gerald Shadel, Yale University
Dr. Shadel's research presents an entirely new approach to mitochondria's impact upon aging and disease. Therefore, he hopes to augment mitochondria in a way that researchers will improve the healthspan for individuals of all ages. Dr. Shadel's research has expansive ramifications for our society an ...

The Evolution of Global Production Networks

Andrew Bernard

The Evolution of Global Production Networks

Realizing how global production networks affect individual firm performance
Andrew Bernard, Dartmouth College
Dr. Bernard collaborates with researchers around the world in a number of distinct teams which tackle particular research questions. While his approach is unorthodox, as he starts at the bottom and builds up the analysis from the level of the firm rather than modeling industries and countries, he is ...

Fighting Global Obesity

Barry Popkin

Fighting Global Obesity

Using taxation, marketing controls, and other large scale options to reverse the global nutrition transition
Barry Popkin, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
In addition to his revolutionary work with food justice and policy, Dr. Popkin manages the only global team that has the skills to study the food system from the factory all the way to individual diet and ultimately health. He is the global leader in working with countries on sugary beverage and jun ...

Detecting the Highest Energy Particles Produced by Nature

Pierre Sokolsky

Detecting the Highest Energy Particles Produced by Nature

Nature's energy frontier with detectors of unprecedented sensitivity
Pierre Sokolsky, University of Utah
Aside from the specific questions Dr. Sokolsky's research may help answer, his work also offers a glimpse into the amazing unknown processes of our universe. These subatomic particles bombard the Earth from space and some of them carry energies millions of times higher than anything that can be crea ...

Answering Questions at the Intersection of Biology and Physics

Raghuveer Parthasarathy

Answering Questions at the Intersection of Biology and Physics

Using advanced microscopy approaches to gain a better understanding of the behaviors of biomaterials and multicellular systems
Raghuveer Parthasarathy, University of Oregon
He and his team develop experiments that explore phenomena like the colonization of the gut by microbes and the mechanics of cellular membranes in order to illuminate general principles governing how these complex systems function. Microscopy Methods: Dr. Parthasarathy and his team develop ...

Compressing Data Signals and Information

Deanna Needell

Compressing Data Signals and Information

Storing and recovering large streams of data efficiently and with high quality
Deanna Needell, Claremont McKenna College
Compressed sensing is significant because it skips the process of measuring the entirety of the signal as was traditionally done in normal signal processing and acquires compression automatically. For example, instead of measuring every pixel in a picture taken by a digital camera in order to proces ...

Attention, Curiosity, and Exploration

Jacqueline Gottlieb

Attention, Curiosity, and Exploration

Understanding the biological mechanisms of selective attention
Jacqueline Gottlieb, Columbia University
Our work examines visual attention – our ability to look at or attend to objects in a visual scene. We view these acts of attention as mental actions whose goal is to inform subsequent decisions. For instance, when we attend to a traffic light at an intersection, we seek to reduce the uncertainty ...

Nature Reveals Unprecedented Technologies

Ryan Hayward

Nature Reveals Unprecedented Technologies

Using biologically-inspired approaches to endow synthetic materials with adaptive properties
Ryan Hayward, University of Massachusetts Amherst
While Dr. Hayward is motivated by fundamental principles, there are many areas in which his research may have a lasting impact. Dr. Hayward and his team expect their technology to be used to create materials for biomedicine that may allow faster healing, less invasive procedures, or more effective i ...

From Epidemiological Research to Real-World Applications

Eric Rimm

From Epidemiological Research to Real-World Applications

Public health research with applications in preventative care, obesity, diabetes, chronic diseases, and children's health
Eric Rimm, Harvard University
The importance of Dr. Rimm's research is two-fold. His fundamental research may lead to prevention and how to use cutting-edge tools to assess biomarkers in bacteria, blood, or DNA to identify early markers of disease to direct at-risk individuals towards modifiable diet and lifestyle choices and di ...

C. elegans Worms Help Find Treatments for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Chris Link

C. elegans Worms Help Find Treatments for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Scientists are learning more about Autism, Alzheimer's, ALS, or other neurodegenerative diseases by replicating the pathological processes of such diseases in worms.
Chris Link, University of Colorado, Boulder
Dr. Chris Link of the University of Colorado is the molecular geneticist that designed the original models for working with C. elegans in order to study disease pathologies. Dr Link explains that "the best ideas are obvious in retrospect" and this concept has been foundational for him as a scientist ...

Identifying and Further Developing Aspirin-like Compounds May Benefit Billions

Daniel Klessig

Identifying and Further Developing Aspirin-like Compounds May Benefit Billions

Identifying and further developing aspirin-like compounds may benefit billions
Daniel Klessig, Cornell University
Dr. Klessig trained as a graduate student under Nobel Laureate James Watson. His early research on human adenoviruses, which provided some of the first evidence for split genes and RNA splicing (Klessig 1977), began an incredible career of discovery and innovation. Beginning in the early 1980's, Dr. ...

Discovering Super-massive Black Holes

Gordon Richards

Discovering Super-massive Black Holes

How finding super-massive black holes helps to understand our place in the universe
Gordon Richards, Drexel University
Dr. Richards' research lays a foundation for addressing many of the pressing questions we have had about black holes and our universe since we were kids. Dr. Richards' research on black holes, and the field of astronomy in general, serves as an inspiration for budding young scientists around the wor ...

Finding the Cause of Congenital Diarrhea

James Goldenring

Finding the Cause of Congenital Diarrhea

Early diagnosis and treatment of infants with deadly congenital diarrheal disease
James Goldenring, Vanderbilt University
Over the past year, Dr. Goldenring led a group of physicians and scientists to impact the care of infants with congenital diarrheal disease without diagnosis. By employing state-of-the-art genomic sequencing analysis of the affected children and their parents, his group has successfully identified t ...

Understanding Human Communication

Florian Jaeger

Understanding Human Communication

Understanding the ways in which humans can decode language
Florian Jaeger, University of Rochester
Research at the HLP lab begins with the development of theoretical mathematical frameworks. These models are implemented and tested in behavioral and brain imaging experiments --theory and experimentation inform each other, leading to the incremental refinement of both. A central component in this w ...

Small Boosts to the Plant Immune System Yield Dramatic Results

Roger Innes

Small Boosts to the Plant Immune System Yield Dramatic Results

Enabling plants to fight off disease
Roger Innes, Indiana University Bloomington
Since 1988, Dr. Innes has made great progress towards understanding the basic molecular mechanisms that plants use to detect pathogens. He and his team are now applying this knowledge to develop crop plants that are resistant to specific diseases. In fact, Dr. Innes' laboratory was the first to esta ...

Plant Immune Responses

Gregory Martin

Plant Immune Responses

Taking a step-by-step approach to understanding bacterial infection in plants
Gregory Martin, Cornell University
Dr. Greg Martin, Boyce Schulze Downey Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research and Professor of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology at Cornell University, is studying the interactions between pathogens and the plant immune system to uncover information about how pathogens i ...

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