- 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.

2019

Li Zhao +
The Rockefeller University

Li Zhao

Assistant Professor, Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics

B.S., Inner Mongolia University, China

Ph.D., Chinese Academy of Sciences

Each living species and every phylogenetic clade has a unique set of genes and phenotypes. Understanding how novel genes originate and subsequently evolve is crucial to explaining the genetic basis of novel phenotypes and ultimately the diversity of life. However, because the relationship between genes and phenotypes is complex and multidimensional, how and what type of genetic innovations contribute to novel organismal phenotypes remains largely unknown. Research in the Zhao Laboratory aims to understand the origination and evolution of molecular innovations as well as how they contribute to phenotypic innovation and adaptation. One of the focuses in the lab is to use de novo genes, which are genes that have originated from non-genic sequences of genomes, as a unique paradigm to tackle these questions. In the long-term, the Zhao lab aims to decipher the principles of gene origination and its underlying positive or negative impact on population dynamics and human health.
Vivianne Tawfik +
Stanford University

Vivianne Tawfik

Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine

B.Sc., McGill University

M.D./Ph.D., Dartmouth College

In conjunction with the Open Philanthropy Project

The mission of the Tawfik Lab is to do the best clinically informed basic science research to advance our understanding of the neuroimmune contribution to chronic pain in a thoughtful manner, with our patients always in mind. We are particularly interested in understanding the unique underpinnings of various types of chronic pain and how central nervous system glial cells (astrocytes and microglia) contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain. Microglia are particularly interesting to us, as the macrophages of the central nervous system with known roles in synaptic pruning and neuroinflammation. Funding from the Open Philanthropy Project will allow us to dive more deeply into the contribution of spinal cord microglia using transgenic manipulations and microglial transcriptome analyses in a mouse model of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a disease that affects the limbs after minor fracture, or surgery. We expect that our findings in this model will also extend to other forms of chronic pain and allow for the development of more specific glial-targeted therapeutics.
Lauren O’Connell +
Stanford University

Lauren O’Connell

Assistant Professor, Biology

B.S., Cornell University

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

Communication of nutritional need during infancy is our very first social interaction, laying the foundation for a healthy life by acquiring nutrition for growth and establishing strong social bonds with caregivers. The O’Connell Lab uses a unique biological model—translucent social tadpoles—to uncover how neonates evaluate their nutritional state, recognize their caregivers, and communicate to their caregivers that they need food. We will carry out this research by mapping the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neonate feeding behavior and social communication of hunger. These studies have implications for informing preventative strategies and treatments for childhood eating disorders and autism spectrum disorders—two of the most prevalent diseases afflicting the youngest members of our society.
Jordan McCall +
Washington University in St. Louis

Jordan McCall

Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology

B.S./B.A., University of Missouri Columbia

M.P.H., University of Missouri Columbia

Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis

In conjunction with the Open Philanthropy Project

I lead a multidisciplinary research program aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the emotional distress associated with stress, chronic pain, and addiction. The long-term goal of the laboratory is to use a neural circuit-level understanding of the brain systems that are disrupted in anxiety and chronic pain to reverse these conditions. If these questions become intractable, the laboratory plans to develop new wireless technology to interface with the nervous system and explore new approaches to data analysis to access the most information from collected data.
Meghan Koch +
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Meghan Koch

Assistant Member, Basic Sciences Division

B.S., University of California, Santa Barbara

Ph.D., University of Washington, School of Medicine

My lab is interested in understanding how maternal-offspring interactions influence neonatal health. We take a comprehensive approach, analyzing multiple aspects of physiology such as immunity, development, and metabolism. Recently, we demonstrated that healthy mothers produce a range of antibodies that bind to bacteria living in the infant gut. Transfer of these antibodies to offspring through breast milk is necessary to limit neonatal immune responses and promote peace between gut bacteria and their infant hosts. Currently, we are characterizing how these antibodies are generated, exploring how maternal antibodies achieve their effects, and determining the long-term consequences these antibodies have on offspring health. Additionally, we are developing systems to identify and characterize how the complete set of maternal-derived factors contributes to health.
Peter Grace +
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Peter Grace

Assistant Professor, Symptom Research

B.S., University of Adelaide

Ph.D., University of Adelaide

In conjunction with the Open Philanthropy Project

Pain that becomes chronic and outlasts the period of healing is a major medical challenge. The Grace Lab investigates the neuroimmune interactions that drive chronic pain. After injury to sensory nerves, glial cells, such as microglia and astrocytes, are activated throughout the central nervous system. These activated glia secrete neurotransmitters and cytokines that increase the excitability of neurons in pain pathways. We are focused on the open question of how spinal cord astrocytes are persistently activated in such remote regions. This line of research is also being expanded to determine how activated glia in the brain also contribute to common comorbidities of chronic pain, including depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairments. The ultimate goal of this work is to find new ways to treat chronic pain.
Meaghan Creed +
Washington University in St. Louis

Meaghan Creed

Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology

B.S., University of Toronto Scarborough

Ph.D., University of Toronto

Our research focuses on synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation within defined neural circuits in the ventral basal ganglia, a collection of brain structures involved in reward learning and selection of flexible behavior. Specifically, we ask how chronic pain, addictive drugs, or genetic mutations alter the function of these neural circuits, and how circuit dysfunction contributes to symptoms of chronic pain, substance use, and mood disorders. Our ultimate goal is to leverage insight from circuit studies to develop novel neuromodulation for these disorders, including deep brain stimulation and focused ultrasound. By first determining how neuronal and circuit adaptations drive specific behavioral symptoms of disease, we can establish a strategy for targeted circuit manipulation in a disease state. We then rationally design neuromodulation paradigms and validate them in model systems to provide novel strategies to treat symptoms at the interface of chronic pain, mood, and substance use disorders.
E. Josie Clowney +
University of Michigan

E. Josie Clowney

Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

B.S., University of Michigan

Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco

Josie Clowney has been designated the Milton E. Cassel Scholar for the 2019 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars. This special award honors the memory of a longtime President of the Rita Allen Foundation who passed away in 2004.

Our bodies make direct contact with environment-derived molecules including volatiles, dietary nutrients, and microbial components. The evolutionary problem of detecting and responding to extraordinarily diverse exogenous compounds has been solved similarly in chemosensory, digestive, and immune systems, by the evolution of large families of cell surface and secreted proteins whose members each have limited binding affinities. The Clowney lab studies how these large gene families evolved; how they are coordinately regulated across cells; and, in the chemosensory system, how signals flowing through chemosensory receptors can be meaningfully interpreted to allow suitable behavioral responses. We are particularly interested in understanding the distinct biological mechanisms that allow reflexive responses to evolutionarily predicted stimuli versus flexible responses to arbitrary or evolutionarily unpredicted stimuli.
Michael Burton +
University of Texas at Dallas

Michael Burton

Assistant Professor, Behavioral and Brain Sciences

B.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Recent initiatives have revealed the importance of how different cell types recognize and respond to pain stimuli. Mastering these single-cell paradigms will lead to a better understanding of mechanisms in pain plasticity and evolve new therapeutics. My work sits at an important interface between the immune and nervous system and strives to understand the complex nature of their interconnectivity. The lab has three areas of focus: inflammation, aging, and cannabinoid signaling. We hope to understand how factors like age, sex, and endogenous cannabinoid signaling modulate pain outcomes.
Matthew Banghart +
University of California, San Diego

Matthew Banghart

Assistant Professor, Neurobiology

B.S., University of the Sciences in Philadelphia

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Our perception of the world around us is heavily shaped by factors such as prior experience, expectations, attentional focus, and drugs—both therapeutic and recreational. Yet, how context influences sensory information processing in the brain is largely a mystery. The Banghart Lab aims to understand how the brain controls the perception of pain. Toward this goal, the lab studies the neural mechanisms that support both pharmacological analgesia (e.g. opioid painkillers), as well as “top-down” pain modulation, wherein pain suppression is driven purely by cognitive processes (e.g. placebo analgesia). By revealing the similarities and differences between the neural circuits and neurochemical signals that underlie these forms of pain modulation, this work may one day contribute to the development of new therapies.

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