Job Dekker, Ph.D., is a pioneering genome biologist whose research has transformed understanding of how chromosomes are organized in three dimensions within the cell nucleus. His laboratory developed Chromosome Conformation Capture and several influential technologies, including 5C and Hi-C, that enable scientists to map genome architecture at high resolution. Dr. Dekker combines experimental and computational approaches to investigate how chromosome folding influences gene regulation, genome stability, and disease, including cancer.
Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D. Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Chung is a physician-scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School whose research focuses on the genetic basis of human disease and the implementation of genomic and precision medicine. She directs NIH-funded programs studying birth defects, including congenital diaphragmatic hernia, esophageal atresia, and congenital heart disease, and leads major studies of autism and rare neurogenetic conditions, including SPARK and Simons Searchlight. Her work also advances newborn screening for disorders such as spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Gia K. Voeltz, Ph.D. Howard Hughes Investigator, University of Colorado
Gia Voeltz, Ph.D., is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research explores how the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) acquires its shape, interacts with other organelles, and contributes to cellular health and disease. Her laboratory investigates how ER membrane-shaping proteins and contact sites regulate organelle dynamics, including mitochondrial and endosomal division and fusion. Using cell biology, biochemistry, and electron microscopy, Dr.
Erol Fikrig, M.D. Yale University, School of Medicine
Erol Fikrig, M.D., is a leading physician-scientist in vector-borne infectious diseases whose research has advanced understanding of how pathogens, arthropod vectors, and mammalian hosts interact during transmission and infection. His laboratory studies Lyme disease, malaria, and mosquito-borne flaviviruses including dengue, West Nile, and Zika viruses. By defining the molecular and immunologic events that occur at the pathogen-vector-host interface, Dr. Fikrig’s work has revealed new opportunities to interrupt disease transmission.
Patrik Verstreken, Ph.D. VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience, Belgium
Patrik Verstreken, Ph.D., is a distinguished neuroscientist and Director of the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research whose work has advanced understanding of synaptic function in health and neurodegenerative disease. His laboratory investigates the proteins, lipids, mitochondria, and cellular pathways that sustain neuronal communication and how their disruption contributes to Parkinson’s disease and tauopathies. Using fruit flies, mice, and human stem cell-derived neurons, Dr.
Leslie A. Leinwand, Ph.D. BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder
Leslie Leinwand, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Executive Science Officer of the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research has advanced understanding of the genetics and molecular physiology of inherited heart disease, including how sex and diet influence cardiac function. Using approaches spanning molecular biology, genetics, physiology, and human tissue analysis, Dr. Leinwand investigates mechanisms underlying cardiomyopathies and other cardiac disorders.
Julie M. Overbaugh, Ph.D., is a Professor of Human Biology and Public Health Sciences and Endowed Chair for Graduate Education at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. A leading virologist, her research has advanced understanding of HIV transmission, viral evolution, and immune responses to infection. Through longstanding collaborations in Kenya, Dr. Overbaugh has investigated mother-to-infant transmission, HIV acquisition among sex workers, and the factors that shape transmission of viral variants.
Matthew Rosen, Ph.D. Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Matthew S. Rosen, Ph.D., is a physicist, inventor, and Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, as well as an Investigator and Kiyomi and Ed Baird MGH Research Scholar at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research advances magnetic resonance imaging through innovative low-field MRI, hyperpolarization techniques, and artificial intelligence-based image reconstruction. Dr. Rosen established the Low-Field MRI and Hyperpolarized Media Laboratory at the Martinos Center and co-directs its Center for Machine Learning.
Donna L. Farber, Ph.D., is the George H. Humphreys II Professor of Surgical Sciences and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University. Her research has advanced understanding of immunological memory, particularly how tissue-resident memory T cells provide localized protection against infection. Dr. Farber combines fundamental studies in experimental models with innovative human tissue research to define how immune responses are organized across tissues, throughout life, and following infection or vaccination.
Christine Jacobs-Wagner, Ph.D., is the Dennis Cunningham Professor at Stanford University and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A pioneer in bacterial cell biology, her research has transformed understanding of how bacteria organize cellular processes in space and time. Her laboratory investigates the mechanisms governing cell growth, morphogenesis, chromosome segregation, and cell-cycle control using genetic, biochemical, computational, and advanced imaging approaches. Working with model organisms and the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi, Dr.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, August 12, 2026
