Honors and Grants

Megan Parker, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received the Obesity Society George A. Bray Dissertation Award. The award recognizes a student for their doctoral dissertation project that advances the scientific or clinical basis for understanding or treating obesity. Megan will receive a $2,000 award and a plaque to be presented at ObesityWeek.

Karthikeyani Chellappa, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, received $1,993,750 for “Coordinated Control of Metabolism by Enzymes and Transporters” from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.   

Margaret Crane, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received $977,325 for “Adapting the Fiscal Mapping Process to Improve the Financial Sustainability of Implementation and Mental Health Organizations” from the National Institute of Mental Health. 

Kimberly K. Diaz Perez, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry (MCB), received $60,000 for “Investigating the pausing of RNA polymerases and RNA modifications as regulators of human gene expression” from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.   

William G. Fairbrother, Katherine Siddle, Karthikeyani Chellappa, Erica Larschan, Federica Accornero, Juan Alfonzo, and Daniel Spade, Giuliani RNA Center, received $11,428,075 for COBRE: Center for RNA Biology in Health and Disease from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Nicolas L. Fawzi, received $263,541 for “Transcriptomic and phenotypic analysis of filament-promoting and -resistant TDP-43 variants in iPSC-derived models of MND,” a subaward from the University of Oxford form the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.                                        

Hannah E. Frank, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received $146,122 for “Partnership with Home Visiting Programs to Promote the Health of People with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus,” a subaward through the California Polytechnic State University from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Anne S. Lee, Pediatrics, received $282,082 for “Effect of iodized salt in pregnancy and lactation on infant neurodevelopment in rural Ethiopia,” a subaward through Brigham & Women's Hospital from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.                

Weihan Li, MDB, received $746,999 for “Spatial coordination of cytosolic and mitochondrial translation,” a transfer award from NIGMS.

Ying Lin, graduate student, received $127,973 for “The impact of the commensal vaginal microbiome on resident memory T cell differentiation and function” from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Sponsor is Lalit Beura and co-sponsor is Laurent Brossay.

Noe B. Mercado, graduate student, received $60,000 for “Cytomegalovirus oncomodulation and clinical impact on glioblastoma” from the PhRMA Foundation.    

Sohini Ramachandran, Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, received $1,870,114 for “Population-genetic methods for inferring recent histories and targets of selection in the biobank era” from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.                          

Heather Schatten, (PI), Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and Nicole Weiss, (URI), received $3,362,747 for “Examining transactional relationships between sensor-derived alcohol use data and acute suicide risk in daily life,” a subaward through the University of Rhode Island from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Katherine Siddle, MMI, received $276,981 for “Identification and Characterization of Viral Reservoirs in Patients with Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection,” a subaward through Massachusetts General Hospital from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.         

Vivian Sung, Obstetrics and Gynecology, received $6.1 million for “Comparing Beta-Agonist versus Onabotulinumtoxin A for Urgency Urinary Incontinence” from PCORI.

Michael Stein, Emily Hurstack, Lisa Uebelacker, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, (MPIs), received $3,413,099 for “BUP - BOOSTeR: Behavioral Optimization for Overcoming Suboptimal Treatment Retention,” a subaward through Boston University to Butler Hospital from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

Mascha van 't Wout, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, received $12,612 for “Developing combined non-invasive brain stimulation plus virtual reality for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a subaward through Ocean State Research Institute from the AE Research Foundation, LLC.                     

Mamiko Yajima,  MCB, received $1,337,703 for “Evolutionary introduction of asymmetric cell division in regulative embryos” from the National Science Foundation.