- Rita Allen Foundation

All Scholars

Since 1976, the Rita Allen Foundation has awarded millions of dollars in grants to early-career biomedical scholars. These grants allow Rita Allen Foundation Scholars to establish labs and pursue research directions with above-average risk and promise. See below for a full list of Scholars, or read more about the Rita Allen Foundation Scholars program.

2010

Seena Ajit +
Drexel University

Seena Ajit

Seena Ajit (Award in Pain Recipient) received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from Rutgers University, and was a scientist in Neuroscience Discovery at Wyeth Research from 2001 to 2009, when she became an assistant professor at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Epigenetics is now recognized as an important aspect of gene regulation, and epigenetic analysis is likely to play an increasingly important role in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of diseases. Ajit is interested in pursuing various aspects of epigenetics, including DNA methylation, histone modifications and RNA-mediated gene silencing, all aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying pain. Currently her group is studying the role of noncoding RNAs in mediating pain, as well as their utility for biomarkers. They have identified differentially expressed circulating miRNAs in whole blood from patients with complex regional pain syndrome relative to controls. Additionally, studies using blood samples from good and poor responders to ketamine treatment have identified differential miRNA signatures both before and after therapy. A major focus in the lab now is to understand the significance of miRNA alterations in regulating gene expression leading to inflammation and pain.

Circulating miRNAs in bodily fluids are delivered to recipient cells via exosomes. Intercellular communication once thought to be limited to secreted signals can now be attributed to exosomes. Exosome contents, including miRNAs and mRNAs, are capable of modulating gene expression in the recipient cells. Ajit’s lab is investigating the mechanistic basis of pro- and anti-nociceptive roles of exosomes from various sources, including patients and rodent models of pain.
Diana Bautista +
University of California, Berkeley

Diana Bautista

RELATED STORY: Diana Bautista: An Itch for Knowledge

Diana Bautista (Award in Pain Recipient) earned her B.S. in biology from the University of Oregon and her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University, where she worked in the laboratory of Richard Lewis. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, collaborating with David Julius. She joined the Berkeley faculty in 2008. In addition to a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar award, she has received the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award.

Bautista’s lab aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the sensations of itch, touch and pain. Humans rely on these senses for a broad range of essential behaviors. For example, acute pain acts as a warning signal that alerts us to noxious mechanical, chemical and thermal stimuli, which are potentially tissue damaging. Likewise, itch sensations trigger reflexes that may protect us from disease-carrying insects. Despite these essential protective functions, itch and pain can outlast their usefulness and become chronic. Bautista’s lab uses cellular physiology, molecular biology, molecular genetics and behavioral studies to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying itch and pain transduction under normal and pathophysiological conditions.
Randy Bruno +
University of Oxford (Columbia University)

Randy Bruno

Randy Bruno earned his B.S. in cognitive science from Carnegie Mellon University and his Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he worked with Daniel Simons. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Germany in the laboratory of Bert Sakmann, and joined the faculty of Columbia University in 2007. He has been a Klingenstein Fellow, a Grossman-Kavli Scholar and a Ludwig Schaefer Research Scholar, and has won the Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Research Award in the Basic Sciences and the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award.

The cerebral cortex is a key brain structure underlying cognition—all of our higher mental abilities, including sensation, perception, problem solving, decision-making and motor planning. Bruno and his colleagues recently discovered that, rather than being a monolithic structure, the cerebral cortex may contain two entirely different structures working in parallel. Signals from sensory organs are relayed to the cortex via the thalamus. Each axon from the thalamus densely targets the upper half of the cortex, while only sparsely targeting deeper cortical layers. Bruno’s team has shown that, while the axonal branches in the deep layers are relatively sparse, they still account for numerous connections onto neurons of the deep layers. They have further discovered that pharmacologically or optogenetically silencing activity in the upper cortical layers has no detectable impact on the activity of the deep layers. The thalamus appears to be independently driving activity in the upper and deeper halves of the cortex as if they are two separate systems. is conclusion is likely a general principle of the cerebral cortex—ranging from primary sensory areas, to high-level face and object recognition areas, to frontal executive regions—because all neocortical areas and mammalian species exhibit similar thalamocortical wiring.
Maitreya Dunham
University of Washington
David Prober +
California Institute of Technology

David Prober

RELATED STORY: David Prober: Sleeping Like the Fishes

David Prober (Milton E. Cassel Scholar)
Agata Smogorzewska
The Rockefeller University
Ye Zheng +
Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Ye Zheng

Ye Zheng earned his B.S. from Peking University in Beijing, China, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the Cancer Research Institute to conduct research in Alexander Rudensky’s lab at the University of Washington in Seattle. After a brief sojourn as a research scholar at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 2009.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a specialized subset of T cells that play a critical role in suppression of overexuberant immune response and maintenance of immune system homeostasis. Abnormal Treg function has been linked to multiple autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, type 1 diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis, as well as inefficient tumor immunity. Research in the Zheng lab is focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of regulatory T cell development and function in the context of autoimmune and metabolic diseases. Foxp3, a member of the forkhead transcription factor family, is expressed specifically in regulatory T cells, and plays a pivotal role in Treg development and function. The Zheng lab discovered an intronic enhancer, named CNS2, at the Foxp3 genomic sequence, which is a “signal hub” for protection of Treg identity. They found that the activation of Tregs is a key event that triggers CNS2:promoter looping activity to stabilize Foxp3 expression. In addition to Tregs’ role in preventing autoimmune diseases, the Zheng lab recently revealed that Tregs are also involved in the development of metabolic diseases. They demonstrated that accumulation of adipose tissue resident Tregs is associated with insulin resistance in aged mice. This study highlighted a novel role of the immune compartment in contributing to key aspects of adipose health and disease.

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