- 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.

2023

Hongying (Hoy) Shen +
Yale University

Hongying (Hoy) Shen

Assistant Professor, Cellular and Molecular Physiology

B.S., Nanjing University

Ph.D., Yale University

The nervous system harbors numerous metabolic enzymes and transporters that play important roles in brain physiology. However, the functions of hundreds of these, including those genetically linked to neurological and psychiatric disorders, remain poorly understood. To bridge this knowledge gap and overcome technical barriers, the Shen lab has devised a suite of mass spectrometry metabolomics-based biochemistry methods, combining in vitro activity-based metabolomics with neuronal cellular metabolomics screening, to simultaneously investigate multiple disease-associated genes in a multiplexed format. This “deorphanization” pipeline holds the promise of uncovering novel brain biochemistry governed by these orphan metabolic genes, elucidating their impact on neuronal metabolism and synaptic transmission. Focusing on disease-associated genes might yield insights into the pathologies of brain disorders and facilitate the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics.
William Renthal +
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

William Renthal

Associate Professor, Neurology; and Director, Headache Research

Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

M.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

In conjunction with Margaret and William R. Hearst III

The Renthal lab studies the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms that contribute to conditions related to refractory headache and facial pain. This work aims to reveal molecular features that are unique to pain-related cells and circuits that could be used to develop novel strategies for pain therapeutics with fewer side effects. Dr. Renthal also co-directs the Harvard PRECISION Pain Center, an NIH-funded network of pain clinicians and scientists who are leveraging advanced multi-omic technologies to characterize the specific cell types and states associated with pain using human samples. Together, this work aims to improve translation of basic research discoveries into safer treatments for patients with refractory headache and/or pain conditions.
Nicole M. Martinez +
Stanford University

Nicole M. Martinez

Assistant Professor, Chemical and Systems Biology; Developmental Biology

B.S., University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Messenger RNAs (mRNAs), the instructions to make proteins, are composed from a 4-letter alphabet of RNA bases. These bases are extensively chemically modified to create new letters in the alphabet that change the meaning of the message. These changes can impact the fate and function of mRNAs in cells. The full collection of RNA modifications in cellular mRNAs represents a previously unappreciated layer of gene regulation on top of what is hard-wired in our genome. The Martinez lab studies how these chemical modifications are added very early when mRNAs are “born,” and how they impact how mRNAs are processed and interpreted in cells. RNA modifications have an important role in health and disease: many RNA modifying enzymes have been associated with a wide range of human diseases, particularly neurodevelopmental disorders, and cancer. Our goal is to connect molecular functions of RNA modifications to normal and disease traits using innovative high-throughput sequencing methods, RNA biochemistry, and model systems.
Emerson Krock +
McGill University

Emerson Krock

Assistant Professor, Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences

B.Sc., McGill University

Ph.D., McGill University

Fibromyalgia is a chronic, whole-body pain disorder. Despite having a clinical diagnosis for decades, the underlying causes remain poorly understood. During a postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Krock and colleagues found that IgG antibodies from fibromyalgia patients cause mice to develop signs of pain, but antibodies from pain-free people do not. The fibromyalgia antibodies bind to satellite glia cells, which surround pain-sensing neurons, and the levels of these antibodies are higher in fibromyalgia patients with more pain. These results suggest a subset of fibromyalgia pain could be mediated by autoantibodies—that is, antibodies attacking parts of our own body. However, why these autoantibodies develop remains unclear. The Krock lab at McGill University is investigating how fibromyalgia autoantibodies develop. One possibility is that altered gut bacteria stimulate an antibody-generating immune response, and if these antibodies recognize molecules similar enough to molecules found on satellite glia, then an autoantibody response could occur.
Lucas Farnung +
Harvard Medical School

Lucas Farnung

Milton E. Cassel Scholar

Assistant Professor, Cell Biology

B.Sc., University College London

Dr. rer. nat., Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Lucas Farnung has been designated the Milton E. Cassel Scholar for the 2023 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.

Each human cell takes on an extraordinary feat, as it compacts its two-meter-long genome into a nucleus that is merely a few microns in size. Yet, our genetic material must remain accessible, ready to be read by the cell’s molecular machinery. To mitigate this conflict, the genomic DNA is spooled like yarn around specialized proteins called histones. Together, histones and the DNA form a structure called chromatin, akin to delicate beads on a string. The Farnung lab studies how a cellular machine called RNA polymerase II navigates through chromatin and generates blueprints of the DNA in a process called transcription. We use a combination of biophysical methods, machine learning, and structural biology approaches. Elucidating transcription through chromatin is important to understand how cells develop, morph into diverse types—like heart or liver cells—and react to the environment. With many cancers linked to dysregulated chromatin transcription, a deeper grasp of this process is vital for novel cancer therapy development.
Jesse Dixon +
Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Jesse Dixon

Assistant Professor, Gene Expression Laboratory

A.B., Princeton University

Ph.D., University of California San Diego

M.D., University of California San Diego

The Dixon lab is interested in how the spatial organization of genomes affects the acquisition and impact of mutations in cancer. Our genomes are 3 billion base pairs in length and must be compacted into the nucleus of every cell in our body. How our genomes are organized in cells has a major impact on diverse processes, from the expression of genes to the replication of DNA as cells divide. In cancer, our genomes are bombarded with mutations, some of which break and shuffle the genomes creating a mosaic of how these genomes appear in healthy cells. When our genomes are shuffled in cancer cells, this often can place cancer-causing genes in novel environments with altered spatial organization, which can lead to aberrant gene activation that drives the growth of cancer cells. We are interested in understanding where and when such altered gene regulation events occur and understanding what critical factors facilitate altered gene activation in cancer genomes.
Neil Dani +
Vanderbilt University

Neil Dani

Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology

B.S., University of Rochester

M.S., New York Medical College

Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

The Dani lab researches the choroid plexus, a fascinating and understudied structure in the brain that generates cerebrospinal fluid and nourishing substances that support brain health throughout life. Recently with collaborators, we generated detailed maps of the choroid plexus, which reveal the cellular sources of the nourishing substances and several additional cell types, suggesting previously unappreciated functions. We believe that the breakdown of these cellular functions contributes to neurological and neurogenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, and that further research could provide novel insights into potential new prevention methods or treatments. To investigate, we are using cutting edge imaging tools that enable us to directly visualize the activity of choroid plexus cells in real time.
Seungwon (Sebastian) Choi +
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Seungwon (Sebastian) Choi

Assistant Professor; Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Anesthesiology, and Pain Management

B.S., Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

M.S., Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Ph.D., Harvard University

In conjunction with Margaret and William R. Hearst III

Each day we experience myriad somatosensory stimuli—hugs from loved ones, warm showers, a mosquito bite, and sore muscles after a workout. These tactile, thermal, itch, and nociceptive signals are detected by sensory neurons innervating the skin, propagated into the spinal cord, and transmitted to the brain via ascending somatosensory pathways. Primary sensory neurons that innervate the skin and detect a wide range of somatosensory stimuli have been identified and well-characterized. In contrast, very little is known about how peripheral signals are integrated and processed within the spinal cord and how these signals are conveyed to the brain to generate somatosensory perception and behavioral responses. The Choi lab aims to determine the developmental logic, functional organization, and dysfunction of ascending somatosensory circuitry. Our lab explores these exciting areas using new mouse genetic tools in conjunction with advanced molecular, anatomical, physiological, and behavioral approaches.
Victoria Abraira +
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Victoria Abraira

Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Neuroscience

B.S., University of Southern California

Ph.D., Harvard University

The Abraira lab proposes a basic blueprint for how spinal cord circuits instantiate top-down emotional context into the modulation of somatosensory input before it even reaches the brain. This work impacts our fundamental understanding of the emotional and attentional aspects of somatosensation and contributes to the emerging picture of the sophistication of contextual processing in the spinal cord and peripheral sensory organs. This work supports the idea of spinal cord and associated peripheral circuits as therapeutic targets for treating conditions affecting somatosensory dysfunctions, like acute and chronic pain. While this specific research project focuses on one neuromodulatory signal, oxytocin, the same blueprint is currently being applied to other modulatory networks implicated in pain modulation, including serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and endocannabinoids.

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