Smithsonian Magazine recently featured “37 Under 36: America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences,” and one of the up-and-comers was E. John Wherry, Ph.D., an immunologist at the Wistar Institute, an independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in Philadelphia.
The profile highlights Wherry’s contributions to an effort to develop a universal vaccine against influenza that would provide long-lasting protection against all strains of the virus, including those yet to emerge and the avian flu. The vaccine would reduce the need for annual vaccination programs and defend against pandemics. As conceived, the vaccine will also be more effective in protecting the atrisk elderly than current vaccines.
Read the profile in Smithsonian Magazine here.
Peter Cornish, a 2012 Pew scholar and assistant professor at University of Missouri’s Department of Biochemistry, is featured in a profile in The Scientist magazine.
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Changchun Xiao, a 2010 Pew scholar and assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute, was lead author in a paper in Nature Immunology focusing on tiny RNA molecules. His findings demonstrated that mice with too little of the tiny RNA molecules were immune deficient, while mice with too many of the molecules developed an auto-immune disorder. His Pew supported research could inform vaccine production and drug development for autoimmune diseases and immune deficient diseases.
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Salil Lachke, a 2012 Pew scholar and assistant professor in University of Delaware’s Department of Biological Sciences, has received a $60,000 grant from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation. As one of 19 researchers across the country to receive this award, he aims to identify biological pathways leading to genetic cataracts.
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The 2013 classes of Pew scholars and Latin American fellows are researching the basis of perplexing health problems—including diabetes, autism, Parkinson's disease, and cancer.
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Diez científicos latinoamericanos fueron hoy nombrados Becarios Pew en Ciencias Biomédicas por las Fundaciones Benéficas Pew. Esta beca proporciona apoyo para financiar las investigaciones de los becarios, permitiéndoles estudiar con destacados científicos de Estados Unidos e invirtiendo capital inicial para ayudarles a establecer sus propios laboratorios al regresar a sus países de origen. La beca Pew otorga un financiamiento flexible a los investigadores posdoctorales que investigan algunos de los problemas de salud más preocupantes del mundo, como la diabetes, la esquizofrenia y el cáncer.
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