Ming Li’s love of science began at an early age growing up in rural China. His grandparents were farmers, and he spent most of his childhood exploring the fields around his house, “being really close to nature,” as he fondly remembers. These experiences helped shape his interest in becoming…

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…

Steven Altschuler began his journey into mathematics and science at an early age. Growing up in a household enriched by discussions of discovery and art, he naturally was drawn into these deep subjects. “My father is an astronomer and I grew up in a house where I just assumed…

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…

Laura Johnston, Professor of Genetics and Development at Columbia University, has been named to the Rita Allen Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee. Johnston has been recognized for her work elucidating the processes by which cells communicate their fitness and compete for territory in developing tissues, which have surprising similarities…

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…