Agilent Early Career Professor Award
Previous Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winners
2023 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2023 Focus: Contributions to the development of live cell analytical tools to identify and measure novel critical quality attributes (CQA) to advance biomanufacturing applications.
Assistant Professor
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
2022 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2022 Focus: Contributions to the development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Vision technologies for intuitive Collaborative Robots (Cobots) to address demands for a flexible next-generation workforce in manufacturing applications.
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Viterbi School of Engineering
University of Southern California
2021 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2021 Focus: Contributions to the development of breakthrough solutions to understand or manage immunological responses to infection, autoimmunity or cancer.
Assistant Professor and Chancellor Scholar
Ruy V. Louren?§o Center for Emerging and Re-Emerging Pathogens
Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
2020 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2020 Focus: Contributions to the development of breakthrough live cell analysis technologies for measuring cellular responses to chemical/pharmaceutical treatments and genetic manipulations, including those that could advance cell-based therapies.
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Assistant Professor
Dept. of Radiation Oncology
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
His outstanding work has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Young Investigator Award: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in 2009, the Merit Award: Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis in 2011, the Needleman Pharmacology Award: Washington University in St. Louis in 2012, the Holman Research Pathway in 2017, the Early Independence Award from the NIH Director in 2018, and the Pancreatic Cancer SPORE Career Enhancement Program Award in in 2019. (press release)
2019 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2019 Focus: Contributions to the development of breakthrough artificial intelligence solutions advancing cancer diagnostics based on image analysis of pathology slides
Assistant Professor
Biomedical Data Science Department
Norris Cotton Cancer Center
Dartmouth College
Lebanon, NH
Dr. Hassanpour's current research focusses on the use of deep-learning technology for histopathological characterization of colorectal polyps to improve colon cancer screening, as well as on other cancer types and imaging modalities. He has an extensive network of clinical collaborations at Dartmouth, where he also counts on very strong institutional support. (press release)
2018 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2018 Focus: Contributions to the development and advancement of techniques and approaches for the study of the human microbiome, microbiome-host interactions and interaction between individual microbiome components
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Microbiology
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Dr. Thaiss has made seminal contributions to the microbiome field. He has made use of multi-omic approaches, from sequencing-based metagenomics to mass spectrometry-based metabolomics analysis, as well as of a myriad of approaches and in vitro and in vivo systems to study the prokaryotic microbiome, its eukaryotic host and their interplay. His work have resulted in the discovery that the intestinal microbiome undergoes diurnal rhythms which strongly influence the circadian biology of the host. In addition, he has identified "memory"-like signatures in the microbiome after obesity, which predispose the host for recurrent weight regain. Recently, he has found that hyperglycemia directly causes loss of intestinal barrier integrity and microbiota containment, providing a mechanism for the enigmatic association between obesity and chronic multi-organ inflammation. He has also provided evidence that support the therapeutic potential of "post-biotics", which are microbiota derived metabolites with a direct effect on the host and the host-microbiome interactions with tremendous impact on human health and disease.
His outstanding work has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Innovation Award of the German Medical Association in 2017, the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award for outstanding achievement during graduate studies in the biological sciences in 2017, and the John F. Kennedy prize for excellent doctoral work, Feinberg Graduate School, Weizmann Institute of Science in 2017. (press release)
2017 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2017 Focus: Contributions to the development and advancement of techniques for the detection of nucleic acids, proteins, or other biomolecules in the context of Liquid Biopsy and its utilization for early detection, characterization and surveillance of cancer and other diseases and conditions.
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry
Arts and Science
Washington University in St. Louis
The current major goal of his research program is to continue to develop new metabolomic technologies to overcome current barriers to study human disease and model animals in the context of organismal biology. The innovative solutions that his lab is pursuing rely heavily on measuring stable isotopes incorporated into metabolites, proteins, and DNA by mass spectrometry and are aimed at the identification of metabolic changes in body fluids associated with cancer.
His outstanding work has been recognized by many awards including the Pew Biomedical Scholars award, the Camille Dreyfus award, the Sloan Foundation award, the Mallinkcrodt Scholars awards. (press release)
2016 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2016 Focus: Contribution to the development of advanced Big Data technologies aimed at making breakthroughs in life science research and imaging for clinical diagnostics.
Dr. Roeland G.W. Verhaak, Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Director of Computational Biology
The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
Farmington, CT
His outstanding work has been recognized by a number of awards related to the genomics of glioblastoma, including the Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award in 2011, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Peter Steck Award in 2013, the Adult Basic Research Award from The Society for Neuro-Oncology in 2014 and the AAAS Martin and Rose Wachtel Cancer Research Award in 2016. (Press release)
2015 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2015 Focus: Contribution to the understanding and use of CRISPR/Cas or other RNA-based technologies for genome editing, control and other applications.
Assistant Professor
Division of Biology and Biological Engineering
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Dr. Guttman received his PhD from the Department of Biology at MIT in 2012. He then established his lab as an independent Fellow at the Broad Institute prior to joining the faculty at Caltech in June 2013. Dr. Guttman obtained his Master's degree in computational biology and bioinformatics as well as Bachelor degrees in molecular biology and in computational biology from University of Pennsylvania in 2006.
Dr. Guttman’s graduate work at MIT and subsequently at the Broad Institute resulted in the discovery and characterization of lincRNAs, short for large intergenic noncoding RNA’s. lincRNAs perform many jobs in the cell, from regulating the plasticity of embryonic stem cells to induction and maintenance of X chromosome inactivation. Dr. Guttman discovered lincRNAs by developing novel bioinformatics methods to analyze RNA sequencing data and exploited chromatin signatures, protein binding interactions and chemical changes in the way DNA wraps around partner proteins to unveil lincRNAs mechanisms of action. His work also has elucidated a potential role for lincRNAs as key organizers of protein complexes at specific genome locations.
His current work focuses on dissecting the mechanisms that govern lincRNA localization to regulatory target sites by binding to specific proteins/protein complexes and nucleic acid sequences in order to better understand how linRNAs control gene expression programs and cell state decisions. ??By exploiting the unparalleled properties of lncRNAs his work also intends to create a modular and programmable approach for mammalian cellular engineering.
Dr. Guttman has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work, including the 2012 NIH Director's Early Independence Award and was named one of Forbes magazine's "30 under 30" in science in 2014. (press release)
2014 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2014 Focus: Contributions to the development of advanced single-cell measurement technologies for investigating molecular properties and dynamics in populations of cells.
Assistant Professor
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Dr. Blainey joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2012. The aim of his research program is to integrate new microfluidic, optical, and molecular tools for application in the life sciences. The Blainey lab emphasizes quantitative single-cell and single-molecule approaches, aiming to enable multiparametric studies with the power to reveal the workings of natural and engineered biological systems across a range of scales.
In his Ph.D. thesis work at Harvard University Dr. Blainey showed that protein molecules slide in persistent contact with DNA and recast the problem of lesion recognition by repair proteins in kinetic rather than thermodynamic terms. He went on to demonstrate that DNA-binding proteins track the DNA helix as they slide and discovered new classes of biomolecules with sliding activity. As a post-doc Dr. Blainey advanced the sensitivity of next-generation sequencing technology utilizing digital PCR, single cell sorting, and microfluidic whole-genome amplification technology.
At MIT and the Broad Institute Dr. Blainey is focused on technology and application development in microfluidics and single-cell genomics. His group partners with research scientists at the Broad Institute to realize new, streamlined technology platforms that dramatically improve the throughput of key workflows. Dr. Blainey is also working to create novel workflows including entirely new ways of using single-cell sequencing.
Dr. Blainey received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics in 2001 from the University of Washington, both cum laude. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 2007 from Harvard University. From 2007 to 2012 he worked at Stanford University as a post-doc in Stephen Quake's laboratory. (press release)
2013 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2013 Focus: Contributions to cancer diagnostics aimed at multi-analyte tools for proteomic and/or genomic biomarkers in pathology.
, M.B., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
Division of Hematology/Oncology
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL
Dr. Yu joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University in 2009 as an Assistant Professor. The aim of her research program at Northwestern University is to use genomics and bioinformatics approaches to decipher the mechanisms underlying prostate tumorigenesis and to identify therapeutic targets as well as biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnostics and prognostics.
Prostate cancer affects a large percentage of the male population, but there is a wide variation in the growth rate of the tumors. Currently there are no reliable tests for distinguishing between the different types of prostate cancer. Dr. Yu's work studies the genetics and epigenetics of different prostate tumor types with the aim of developing better tests for predicting the likely rate of tumor growth.
Dr. Yu uses genome-wide technologies to measure cancer biology and deep sequencing to reveal distinct patterns of DNA methylation during various stages of prostate cancer progression. She is investigating whether the differentially methylated regions identified can predict the future course of the disease.
Dr. Yu received a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1998 from Peking University. She received her M.S. in Statistics in 2003 and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2004 from the University of Michigan. From 2004 to 2007 she worked at the HHMI and Michigan Center for Translational Pathology under Dr. Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D. (press release)
2012 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2012 Focus: Contributions to the subset of structural biology aimed at utilizing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques to improve the understanding of molecular structure and function of nucleic acids or proteins.
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Living systems depend on tightly regulated networks of protein/ligand interactions. Combining data from NMR and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC), Dr. Mittermaier characterizes even very short-lived protein/ligand interactions. His lab investigates the question of whether protein folding occurs cooperatively on a microsecond timescale using both Differential Scanning Calorimetry and NMR.
Allostery is a central feature of biological systems in which covalent modification or ligand binding at one site influences the activity at distant sites in a macromolecule or macromolecular assembly. Dr. Mittermaier and his team combined NMR, ITC and circular dichroism spectroscopy to discover novel allosteric mechanisms for a number of biomolecules.
Mittermaier received a B.Sc. in Biophysics in 1996 at the University of Guelph. He received his Ph.D. in 2003 in Biochemistry at the University of Toronto under Prof. Lewis E. Kay.
(press release)
2011 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2011 Focus: Alignment with the field of integrated biology, including the individual omics. Work in this area will typically involve two or more of the omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) and will seek to build understanding by relating the different views of biological systems while contributing to the understanding of life.
Dr. Michael Jewett
Northwestern University
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological
Northwestern University, Chicago
In James Swartz's lab at Stanford University, Jewett developed a high yielding and cost-effective bacterial cell-free protein synthesis platform that is now being used as a high-throughput protein production platform and for the commercial production of personalized medicines. Although cell-free translation systems had been used for more than 50 years, Jewett demonstrated that central metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, transcription, and translation could be co-activated in a single test tube under conditions conducive to high-level protein synthesis.
In Jens Nielsen’s lab at the Technical University of Denmark, Jewett generated the first datasets in yeast that integrated data across at least three levels of the cellular hierarchy and protein interaction information with metabolic network topology. Jewett and colleagues discovered that genome-scale metabolic models could be used to upgrade the information content obtained in systems-level data for bridging the gap between transcriptional state and metabolic flux.
In George Church’s lab at the Harvard Medical School, Jewett constructed ribosomes in vitro as a milestone towards a novel ribosome evolution platform and the construction of synthetic life. In a demonstration elusive for four decades, he showed that Escherichia coli ribosomes could be reconstituted in a one-step incubation procedure under chemical conditions that mimic the cytoplasm. Jewett also discovered that ribosomal RNA synthesis could be combined with ribosome self-assembly to make functionally active ribosomes. This advance promises to accelerate the development of synthetic ribosomes capable of producing and evolving non-natural peptide drugs and hybrid materials.
Jewett received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1999 at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his M.S. in 2001 and his Ph.D. in 2005 Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. (press release)
2010 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
2010 Focus: Alignment with the field of Systems Biology. Work in this area will typically involve two or more of the omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) and will seek to build understanding by relating the different views of biological systems while contributing to the understanding of life.
Michelle Chang
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
University of California, Berkeley
Professor Chang received a B.S. in biochemistry and a B.A. in French literature in 1997 at UC San Diego. In 2004, she earned her Ph.D. at MIT with Daniel Nocera and JoAnne Stubbe with whom she studied ribonucleotide reductase, an enzyme essential for DNA synthesis. (press release)
2009 Agilent Early Career Professor Award Winner
Boris Murmann
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Stanford University