Congratulations to all fellows who received the annual Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) for the 2025 competition. FARE is an NIH-wide competition that recognizes the important research of intramural fellows. We extend sincere congratulations to our 15 winners as well as a special thanks to all NICHD fellows who submitted an abstract and shared their research with the intramural community.
Announcing this year’s NICHD FARE recipients and their research:
Melania Bruno, Ph.D.
“Adding the missing tiles to the puzzle: sequence reconstruction of KRAB-ZFP gene clusters highlights their rapid evolution in mice”
Laboratory of Todd S. Macfarlan, Ph.D., Section on Mammalian Development and Evolution
Amara Channell Doig, Ph.D., M.P.H.
“Profiles of Maternal Feeding Practices and their Association with Parental Feeding Styles, Child Diet Quality, and the Home Food Environment”
Laboratory of Tonja Nansel, Ph.D., Social and Behavioral Sciences Branch
Saikat Ghosh, Ph.D.
“Lysosome-coupled mRNA transport maintains axonal homeostasis.”
Laboratory of Juan Bonifacino, Ph.D., Section on Intracellular Protein Trafficking
Ritu Gupta, Ph.D.
“Unveiling the Molecular Dance of Gcn2 Activation during stress”
Laboratory of Alan Hinnebusch, Ph.D., Section on Nutrient Control of Gene Expression
Teri Hatzihristidis, Ph.D.
“Tuning T cells against cancer”
Laboratory of Paul E. Love, M.D., Ph.D., Section on Hematopoiesis and Lymphocyte Biology
Leanne E. Iannucci, Ph.D.
“Decoding Vertebrate Signaling Gradients with In Vivo Optogenetics”
Laboratory of Katherine W. Rogers, Ph.D., Unit on Developmental Signaling
Kanako Inoue, D.D.S., Ph.D.
“Studying tooth development using the zebrafish”
Laboratory of Brant Weinstein, Ph.D., Section on Vertebrate Organogenesis
Fnu Khushboo, Ph.D.
“Identification of serum protein biomarkers in Niemann-Pick disease, type C1”
Laboratory of Forbes D. Porter, M.D., Ph.D., Section on Molecular Dysmorphology
Sarita Kumari, Ph.D.
“Unveiling Neuroprotective Targets: A Genome-wide CRISPRi Screen in NPC1-deficient Neurons”
Laboratory of Forbes D. Porter, M.D., Ph.D., Section on Molecular Dysmorphology
Louis Tung Faat Lai, Ph.D.
“Gating and regulatory mechanisms of human magnesium channel MRS2 revealed by cryo-EM”
Laboratory of Doreen Matthies, Ph.D., Unit on Structural Biology
Tanmay Mondal, Ph.D.
“Mechanistic dissection of substrate selectivity of protein palmitoyltransferases”
Laboratory of Anirban Banerjee, Ph.D., Section on Structural and Chemical Biology
Kiyohito Taimatsu, Ph.D.
“Establishing the zebrafish as a model to study the pharynx”
Laboratory of Brant Weinstein, Ph.D., Section on Vertebrate Organogenesis
Marcela Teatin Latancia, Ph.D.
“Human translesion DNA polymerases iota and kappa mediate tolerance to temozolomide in methylated MGMT glioma cells”
Laboratory of Roger Woodgate, Ph.D., Section on DNA Replication, Repair, and Mutagenesis
Prabhavi Wijesiriwardhana, Ph.D.
“Does reproductive experience modify maternal genetic association with fetal growth?”
Laboratory of Fasil Tekola Ayele, Ph.D., Epidemiology Branch
Josette Wlaschin, M.A.
“How the most common pathology in ALS, loss of nuclear TDP-43, leads to motor neuron dysfunction and death”
Laboratory of Claire Le Pichon, Ph.D., Unit on the Development of Neurodegeneration