Four Faculty Members, Two Alumni Awarded NIH Grants

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants to four Princeton professors and two alumni through the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program which supports “visionary and broadly impactful” research projects. The receipts are: 

John F. Brooks II, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, was awarded the New Innovator Award, which is given to individuals early in their careers to support unusually innovative research, according to the NIH. Brooks’ lab will use the funding to study how the circadian clock coordinates animal and microbial metabolism.  

Fenna Krienen, an assistant professor in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and affiliated with the Program in Quantitative and Computational Biology, also received the New Innovator Award. She will use the funding to support her research investigating how genomic recording systems reveal evolutionary modifications in the primate neocortex, which controls cognitive function.  

Zemer Gitai, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, received the Pioneer Award, which encourages recipients to pursue “new research directions to develop pioneering approaches to major challenges.” The award will allow Gitai to focus on a single-cell approach to developing nontraditional antibiotics.  

Michael Skinnider, an assistant professor in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and a member of the Princeton branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, received the Early Independence Award which allows “exceptional junior scientists” to launch independent research in lieu of traditional postdoctoral fellowships. The grant will allow Skinnider to create a machine-learning platform to illuminate the chemical dark matter in mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. 

Rong Lu ’07, an assistant professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, and Michael Elowitz *99, a professor of biology and biological engineering at Caltech, received the Transformative Research Award, which supports “research that could potentially create or challenge existing paradigms,” according to the NIH. The duo will use the funding to study hematopoietic regeneration dynamics in the bone marrow.  

These six researchers are among 67 receipts who were awarded a total of about $207 million over five years. “The HRHR program champions exceptionally bold and innovative science that pushes the boundaries of biomedical and behavioral research,” Tara A. Schwetz, the NIH’s deputy director for program coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives said in a statement. “The groundbreaking science pursued by these researchers is poised to have a broad impact on human health.”