Aaron Gitler began his scientific career as an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University, where he volunteered in a lab washing dishes. Despite the less-than-glamorous work, he loved being there. Eventually, he realized that if he finished his dishwashing early enough, he could observe students and postdocs doing their research…

Major grants will support five pioneering early-career biomedical scientists.

Major grants will support five pioneering early-career biomedical scientists. The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2020 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, celebrating five early-career leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health. The selected Scholars will receive…

Major grants will support ten pioneering early-career biomedical scientists. The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2019 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, celebrating ten young leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health. The selected Scholars will receive…

Mark Zylka discovered the excitement of pursuing a scientific question in high school. His high school science teacher, Robert Foor-Hogue, led a hands-on course in which Zylka and the other students designed research experiments to address their individual burning scientific questions. It was then that Zylka appreciated that the…

A series of bold experiments led Li-Huei Tsai to her career-defining turn toward neuroscience.

From his earliest experiments, Ron Vale has investigated the movements that make life possible: the productive growth of plants, the division of cells, and the transit of signals through the long axons of neurons. His work, both within the laboratory and beyond, is marked by a persistent…

Tenth class of early-career pain researchers to investigate key regulators of pain signaling, inform new therapeutic strategies The Rita Allen Foundation has named Helen Lai of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Candice Paulsen of Yale University as 2018 Award in Pain Scholars, recognizing emerging leaders in…

Several Rita Allen Foundation Scholars have explored the genetic and cellular mechanisms that enable living things to adapt and survive in the face of an ever-changing environment. With support from the Foundation, these pioneering researchers have developed new ways to study the complex dynamics of DNA, track the activity of…