This highly detailed animation illustrates neurons firing in the human brain. Video: DKosig/Creatas Video/Getty Images
The NLMFF trustees felt that they could not stand by and tolerate the incalculable loss of ideas, drive, and enthusiasm that these young people bring to autism research.
Clarence Schutt
HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, says cuts in federal support for biomedical research are most acutely visible in the School’s struggle to support postdoctoral researchers, whom he calls “the essential engine of scientific progress.”
“These early-career scientists are especially vulnerable to funding shifts and losses, and yet their work is foundational to nearly every breakthrough we make,” he says. “Each secured postdoctoral fellowship not only preserves vital studies today but also shapes an entire career trajectory with enormous impact for years to come.”
Given this reality, Daley expresses profound gratitude to the NLMFF: “The foundation’s remarkable generosity is helping us safeguard the future of fundamental science and the postdoctoral researchers who drive it.”
Autism is characterized by unique social interactions, inclination toward routines, challenges in verbal communication, and sensory sensitivities. |
|---|
The following scientists will each receive $200,000 over two years from the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellows Fund:
- Alex Wang, PhD, a research fellow in neurobiology, studies how specific brain cells known as interneurons, which help control brain balance and timing, are wired and how they behave in mouse models with autism-related gene mutations, seeking to reveal how these genetic risks change prefrontal brain circuits involved in decision-making and social behavior.
- Tomasz Kula, AB ’12, PhD ’19, a research fellow in neurobiology, has developed a tool that lets scientists test many different autism-related gene mutations in the same brain at once, allowing him to observe how each change affects different brain cells and identify common patterns that may explain shared autism symptoms.
- Elizabeth Lackey, PhD, a research fellow in neurobiology, investigates how circuits in the cerebellum—a brain region known for movement—also regulate social behavior, aiming to uncover specialized “social” circuitry that may be altered in autism.
- Guangqing Lu, PhD, a research fellow in immunology, studies how certain brain cells respond to an immune molecule called IL‑17A in mouse models exhibiting autism-like behaviors, mapping these cells and their gene activity to understand how immune signals may disrupt brain function in autism.
- Bruno Gegenhuber, PhD, a research fellow in neurobiology, explores how early-life experiences change gene activity and connections between brain cells in the developing visual cortex, and how disruptions in these pathways may lead to abnormal brain wiring and sensory problems.