Current and Former Awardees
Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientists2024 Recipients
Zibo Chen, PhD
“Protein-based molecular programming for cancer immunotherapy”
at Westlake University Rachel Segal Greenberg, PhD
“The function of interoceptive circuits in reproduction and cancer”
at Harvard Medical School Julia Su Zhou Li, PhD
“Uncovering the link between repetitive DNA, genomic instability, and tumor viruses”
at Boston Children's Hospital Jingchuan Luo, PhD
“Decoding the role of localized translation in normal physiology and cancer metastasis”
at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Mark R. Sullivan, PhD
“Identifying determinants of pathogenesis and drug resistance in opportunistic lung infection”
at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 2023 Recipients
Liudmila Andreeva, PhD
"Making an inflammasome: Structural and biochemical elucidation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation"
at Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen Erin E. Duffy, PhD
"Activity-dependent changes in RNA stability as a mechanism for synaptic plasticity"
at Harvard Medical School Courtney Ellison, PhD
"The regulation and function of type IV pili in Acinetobacter biofilm formation"
at University of Georgia Christopher P. Lapointe, PhD
“Fundamental mechanisms that underlie human translation initiation and its dysregulation in cancer”
at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Abigail Overacre-Delgoffe, PhD
"Harnessing the immune response to cancer through the microbiota"
at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Tyler Starr, PhD
"Protein evolution at the host-virus interface"
at University of Utah Benjamin M. Stinson, PhD
"Mechanism of DNA processing during non-homologous end joining"
at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Lexy von Diezmann, PhD
"Single-molecule dynamics of DNA repair assemblies in live cells"
at University of Minnesota 2022 Recipients
Robert S. Banh, PhD
“Codon- and nutrient-specific regulation of mRNA translation in pancreatic cancer”
at New York University Grossman School of Medicine Allison L. Didychuk, PhD
“Understanding the mechanism of genome packaging in oncogenic herpesviruses"
at Yale University Dian Yang, PhD
“Molecular recording of tumor evolution in response to macrophage modulations”
at Columbia University Xiaoyu Zhang, PhD
“Discovery of chemical probes that support targeted protein degradation in human cancer”
at Northwestern University Xin Zhou, PhD
“Designing signaling proteins to enact anti-tumor responses"
at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School 2021 Recipients
Leeat Keren, PhD
"Studying the tumor immune microenvironment in pancreatic cancer using multiplexed imaging"
at Weizmann Institute of Science Nora Kory, PhD
"Mitochondrial transporters in metabolite compartmentalization and homeostasis"
at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Kara L. McKinley, PhD
"Physiology and pathology of the uterus"
at Harvard University Deepshika Ramanan, PhD
"Identifying functions of regulatory T cell subsets in intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer"
at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies 2020 Recipients
Lindsay B. Case, PhD
"Understanding the physical principles that regulate cell signaling"
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Natasha M. O'Brown, PhD
"Molecular and cellular regulators of blood-brain barrier function"
at Rutgers University Yi Yin, PhD
"Global analysis of DNA break repair by single-cell sequencing"
at University of California, Los Angeles 2019 Recipients
Brian J. Beliveau, PhD
"Decoding Polycomb-mediated gene regulation in single cells with single-molecule super resolution imaging and synthetic biology"
at University of Washington Tera C. Levin, PhD
"Master microbial manipulators: how hosts are shaped by bacterial interactions"
at University of Pittsburgh Sigrid Nachtergaele, PhD
"Identifying novel mechanisms of gene expression regulation through mRNA modifications"
at Yale University Thomas M. Norman, PhD
"Efficient strategies for finding and elucidating genetic interactions"
at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Esteban A. Orellana Vinueza, PhD
"tRNA dysregulation and cancer"
at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Alistair B. Russell, PhD
"Impact of heterogeneity on the cellular recognition of influenza"
at University of California, San Diego Justin L. Sparks, PhD
"Fundamental mechanism of DNA-protein crosslink repair"
at Harvard Medical School 2018 Recipients
Ryan D. Baldridge, PhD
"Investigating the mechanism of retro-translocation by ERAD"
at University of Michigan Liron Bar-Peled, PhD
"Identification of cysteine liabilities in NRF2-driven cancers"
at Massachusetts General Hospital Chao Lu, PhD
"Chromatin dysregulation as driver of oncogenesis"
at Columbia University Matthew P. Miller, PhD
"Deciphering tension-dependent stabilization of kinetochore-microtubule interactions"
at University of Utah Shruti Naik, PhD
"Immune-epidermal stem cell crosstalk in skin inflammation"
at New York University School of Medicine Neel H. Shah, PhD
"Identifying divergent mechanisms of oncogenicity in tyrosine kinases"
at Columbia University 2017 Recipients
Gira Bhabha, PhD
"High-resolution studies of dynein structure and mechanism"
at New York University School of Medicine Andrew A. Bridges, PhD
"Bacterial cell fates: The role of quorum sensing in biofilm patterning"
at Carnegie Mellon University Lydia Finley, PhD
"Metabolic regulation of cell fate decisions"
at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Jens C. Schmidt, PhD
"Single-molecule analysis of telomerase recruitment to telomeres"
at Michigan State University Jakob von Moltke, PhD
"Initiation of type 2 immune responses"
at University of Washington 2016 Recipients
Alistair N. Boettiger, PhD
"Using super-resolution imaging to probe molecular mechanisms of Polycomb silencing"
at Stanford University Mingye Feng, PhD
"Macrophage-mediated immunosurveillance in metastasis"
at City of Hope Ivana Gasic, Dr.Sc.
"Molecular elucidation of the interphase Microtubule Integrity Response (MIR)"
at University of Geneva Ralph E. Kleiner, PhD
"Using chemistry to illuminate DNA and RNA damage processes in cells"
at Princeton University Iva A. Tchasovnikarova, PhD
"Fluorogenetic interrogation of chromatin position effects"
at The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge 2015 Recipients
Angela N. Brooks, PhD
"Characterizing somatic mutations that affect mRNA splicing in cancer"
at University of California, Santa Cruz Sidi Chen, PhD
"Investigation of Dicer as a novel therapeutic route towards the inhibition of tumorigenesis and neoplastic growth"
at Yale University Robert K. McGinty, MD, PhD
"Structural studies of the MLL1 Core Methyltransferase complex"
at Pennsylvania State University Michael J. Smanski, PhD
"Establishing a versatile platform for functionalizing biological magnetic nanoparticles"
at University of Minnesota Angela J. Waanders, MD
"Preclinical models for therapeutic targeting of pediatric astrocytomas"
at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia 2014 Recipients
David K. Breslow, PhD
Dissecting the role of the ciliary transport machinery in oncogenic signal transduction
at Stanford University School of Medicine Costas A. Lyssiotis, PhD
"Exploring the metabolic effects of oncogenic Kras in pancreatic ductual adenocarcinoma"
at University of Michigan Raymond E. Moellering, PhD
"Characterization of novel pathogenic pathways in cancer: do tumor cells use quorum-sensing molecules to support malignancy?"
at The University of Chicago Nathan D. Thomsen, PhD
“Molecular and cellular mechanism of caspase activation by small molecule pro-enzyme activators”
at University of California, San Francisco Cole Trapnell, PhD
“Globally characterizing lncRNA oncogenes with next-generation transciptomics”
at University of Washington 2013 Recipients
Adam de la Zerda, PhD
“Molecular imaging of cell-cell signaling in the tumor microenvironment”
at Stanford University Gabriel C. Lander, PhD
“Structural basis of GTP hydrolysis in microtubule dynamic instability”
at The Scripps Research Institute 2012 Recipients
Sean C. Bendall, PhD
"Improved single-cell phosphoprotein signaling analysis of oncogenic progression in leukemia"
at Stanford University Robert K. Bradley, PhD
“Investigating the splicing co-regulatory network”
at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Jason M. Crawford, PhD
“Systematic approaches to discovering bioactive bacterial metabolites”
at Yale University 2011 Recipients
Ken Cadwell, PhD
“Characterization of mice deficient in autophagy protein Atg16L1”
at New York University School of Medicine L. Stirling Churchman, PhD
“Visualizing global transcription in vivo at nucleotide resolution”
at Harvard Medical School 
