Immunobiologist named a Howard Hughes investigator
Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology and of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator. She is one of 27 investigators chosen this year from a group of 1,155 applicants. Iwasaki’s body of research has addressed the mechanisms of innate recognition of viruses and the initiation of antiviral immunity. Funding from HHMI, she says, will help her lab “determine how the bacteria and viruses that inhabit our body influence the immune system. Ultimately, we hope to design vaccines that effectively prevent diseases caused by viruses that enter through mucosal sites.”
HHMI provides each investigator with his or her full salary, benefits, and a research budget over an initial five-year appointment. The institute also covers other expenses, including research space and the purchase of critical equipment. Investigator appointments may be renewed for additional five-year terms, each contingent on a successful scientific review. A nonprofit medical research organization with an endowment of more than $16 billion, HHMI was founded by businessman Howard Hughes in 1953.
Studying inflammation’s role in diverse illnesses
A new study led by scientists Richard A. Flavell, chair and Sterling Professor of Immunobiology, and Ruslan M. Medzhitov, David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology, will explore and define the molecular links between inflammation, commensal microorganisms, and chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Funded with a $10 million grant from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the study has the potential, said Yale president Peter Salovey, “to transform our understanding of human biology and our approaches to the most intractable diseases.” Flavell and Medzhitov are both Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators.
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