August 2014
LSRF AWARDS POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
The Life Sciences Research Foundation is pleased to announce recipients of three-year
postdoctoral fellowships who will begin their training August 2014. The awards are the thirtysecond to be made by the Foundation, which was organized in 1981 as an alternative instrument for
guiding monies from industry, foundations, agencies, and other donors to the non-targeted support of
outstanding young scientists. The awardees were chosen by the Foundation's Peer Review
Committee from over 900 applicants. Each recipient will work at a non-profit institution of his or
her choice, and each will be identified as the individual recipient of support from one of the
Foundation's Sponsors.
The recipients, their institutional affiliations, and the sponsoring donors, were announced by
the Foundation's Officers, Dr. Donald D. Brown, Dr. Douglas Koshland and Dr. Daniel Gottschling
as follows:
2014 Fellows
Kari Barlan, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Examination of the giant cadherin Fat2 in collective cell migration", University
of Chicago, laboratory of Sally Horne-Badovinac. Dr. Barlan received her Ph.D. from
Northwestern University.
Jonathan Barnes, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Composite nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery of cancer
chemotherapeutics", Massachusetts Institute of Technology, laboratory of Jeremiah Johnson. Dr.
Barnes received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Aakash Basu, Simons Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Understanding transduction of sound into electrical responses by directly
pulling on individual mechanotransduction ion channels in ear hair cells", Rockefeller University,
laboratory of A. James Hudspeth. Dr. Basu received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Rogier Braakman, Simons Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Metabolic driving forces in the adaptive dynamics of marine microbial
ecosystems", Massachusets Institute of Technology, laboratory of Sallie W. Chisholm. Dr.
Braakman received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.
Roger Chang, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "RNA nanotube scaffolds as synthetic in vivo macromolecular machines",
Harvard Medical School, laboratory of Pamela Silver. Dr. Chang received his Ph.D. from the
University of California - San Diego.
Daniel Cohen, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Cadherin-conjugated scaffolds for tissue engineering", Stanford University,
laboratory of W. James Nelson. Dr. Cohen received his Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco.
Adler Dillman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Disentangling resistance and tolerance to cancer", Stanford University,
laboratory of David S. Schneider. Dr. Dillman received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of
Technology.
Ting Han, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Page 1 of 3
Proposal entitled "Structural and functional analyses of fibers formed from low complexity
sequences", University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, laboratory of Steven L. McKnight.
Dr. Han received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor.
Robert Jinkerson, Simons Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Transforming our understanding of plant lipid metabolism with a novel
functional genomics strategy", Carnegie Institution for Science, laboratory of Martin Jonikas. Dr.
Jinkerson received his Ph.D. from the Colorado School of Mines.
Sung-Yon Kim, Rett Syndrome Research Trust Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Comprehensive structural and molecular phenotyping of mouse models for Rett
syndrome", Massachusetts Institute of Technology, laboratory of Kwanghun Chung. Dr. Kim
received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Christine Lattin, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Using positron emission tomography (PET) for dynamic in vivo visualization of
the metabolic endocrinology of wild birds", Yale University, laboratory of Richard E. Carson. Dr.
Lattin received her Ph.D. from Tufts University.
Xiaochun Li, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled “Structural analysis of the three integral membrane proteins of the nuclear pore
membrane”, Rockefeller University, laboratory of Gunter Blobel. Dr. Li received his Ph.D. from
Tsinghua University.
Robert McIsaac, The Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Engineered microbial opsins for neuroscience via structure-guided
recombination", California Institute of Technology, laboratory of Frances Arnold. Dr. McIsaac
received his Ph.D. from Princeton University.
Shay Ohayon, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Dissecting the micro-architecture of non-human primates inferotemporal (IT)
cortex with deep brain calcium imaging", Massachusetts Institute of Technology, laboratory of
James DiCarlo. Dr. Ohayon received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.
Gabriel Rocklin, Merck Fellow:
Proposal entitled "De novo protein design of AMA1 binders for malaria", University of
Washington, laboratory of David Baker. Dr. Rocklin received his Ph.D. from the University of
California - San Francisco.
Caroline Runyan, Simons Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "The transfer and representation of sensory information during decisionmaking", Harvard Medical School, laboratory of Christopher Harvey. Dr. Runyan received her
Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kuang Shen, Pfizer Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Biochemical analysis of the Rag GTPases of the mTOR pathway", Whitehead
Institute of Biomedical Research, laboratory of David Sabatini. Dr. Shen received his Ph.D. from
the California Institute of Technology.
Zhen Shi, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Characterizing the ribosome code in regulation of gene expression during
mammalian cell fate specification", Stanford University, laboratory of Maria Barna. Dr. Shi
received her Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Patrick Shih, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fellow:
Page 2 of 3
Proposal entitled "Elucidating plant-rhizobacterial interaction for engineering improved plant
growth fitness", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, laboratory of Dominique Loque. Dr.
Shih received his Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley.
Ruth Sommese, Life Sciences Research Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Properties of ß2-adrenergic receptor selectivity and multiplicity", University of
Michigan, laboratory of Sivaraj Sivaramakrishnan. Dr. Sommese received her Ph.D. from Stanford
University.
Sungmin Son, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Mechanical regulation of cell-cell fusion", University of California - Berkeley,
laboratory of Daniel A. Fletcher. Dr. Son received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
Ho Lam Tang, The Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Anastasis: A novel cell survival mechanism in vivo", Johns Hopkins Medical
Institute, laboratory of Marie Hardwick. Dr. Tang received his Ph.D. from the Chinese University
of Hong Kong.
Reza Vafabakhsh, Merck Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Single molecule FRET study of GPCR signaling: from receptor activation to G
protein activation", University of California - Berkeley, laboratory of Ehud Isacoff. Dr.
Vafabakhsh received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign.
Ophelia Venturelli, Simons Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Reverse engineering of stable microbial communities from the human gut
microbiome", University of California - Berkeley, laboratory of Adam P. Arkin. Dr. Venturelli
received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.
Jixian Zhai, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fellow:
Proposal entitled "Functional study of MORC proteins in safeguarding transposon and genome
integrity", University of California - Los Angeles, laboratory of Steven E. Jacobsen. Dr. Zhai
received his Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.
Page 3 of 3