Directory - Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund

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Christian E. Rocheleau, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of Pennsylvania

Project Title: Analysis of PP2A function in C Elegans Ras signaling

Matthew V. Rockman, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Princeton University

Project Title: Genomic dissection of polygenic traits in C. elegans

Paul D. Roepe, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Roche Institute of Molecular Biology

Project Title: Study of the membrane transport protein lac permease

Julia R. Rogers, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Columbia University

Project Title: Learning the modular grammar of phase separation in signaling networks

Cells efficiently convert environmental information into specific functional responses through cascades of biochemical reactions and biomolecular interactions. High fidelity signal transduction requires spatiotemporal regulation of these molecular events. This can be accomplished through phase separation. Many signaling condensates dynamically assemble through multivalent protein–protein interactions mediated by modular interaction domains. How the molecular factors that drive phase separation enable coordinated and precise flow of information among myriad signaling pathways remains a mystery. To answer such questions that encompass molecular- and systems-level phenomena, my research focuses on developing integrative data- and physics-based modeling frameworks using the tools of machine learning and statistical mechanics. Using these approaches, I aim to decipher the modular grammar of signaling proteins that governs phase separation and, more broadly, the biophysical principles that underlie cell homeostasis.

Stanfield Rogers, M.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Rockefeller University

Project Title: Viruses and cancer

Dragana Rogulja, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Rockefeller University

Project Title: A search for the molecular mechanisms and physiological basis of sleep

I am currently conducting research aimed at understanding sleep: its biological significance and how it is regulated.

I grew up in Belgrade, Serbia, convinced that the only interesting career would be in the arts or literature. Choosing science as my path came as a consequence of the harsh economic reality following the wars of the 1990s. For a while, I felt slightly uncomfortable, seeing myself as an outsider playing the role of a scientist. Now, I am convinced that science is one of the most exciting paths one can follow. I realize that scientists and artists are often cut from the same cloth, using different approaches to understand life. This may be particularly true in neuroscience, which I chose as my focus. Even without a scientific background, one can easily appreciate many of the questions asked in this field ¬†¬ó what does it mean to feel something, what drives us, why do we have to sleep every night? One of my hobbies is taking photographs of great works of art that have sleep as their theme. Chances are that your favorite artist is in my collection.

Heegwang Roh, Ph.D. HHMI - Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of California, Berkeley

Project Title: Discovery of silencing factors of the unfolded protein response in cancer

Dr. Heegwang Roh recalls how the COVID-19 pandemic hit during a pivotal moment of his graduate training. During the lockdown, he devoted considerable effort to reading literature on basic biology and became interested in the unfolded protein response (UPR), a cellular stress response triggered by the accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins in a cell.

Roh’s thesis research in Dr. Alice Ting’s lab at Stanford University involved a number of innovative projects covering a broad swath of chemical biology. In one project, he created a better way to tag nearby proteins using an enzyme called laccase, fixing safety problems seen in older methods. This new system works well for studying proteins and viewing cells under powerful microscopes. In another project, Roh turned a harmless version of botulinum toxin into a tool for delivering proteins inside cells.

As he transitions to Dr. Michael Rape’s lab at UC Berkeley, Roh will utilize his expertise in tool development to interrogate the UPR. This response is important for cells to respond to stress stimuli, yet the molecular mechanisms by which the UPR is suppressed after the stress is resolved is unknown. Roh will use genetic screens to identify novel UPR suppressors and develop chemical inhibitors for the UPR suppressors. In addition to uncovering novel UPR biology, Roh’s studies will provide new tools for studying UPR in cancer cells and perhaps reveal lead molecules for cancer drug development.

David A. Roise, Ph.D., J.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of Basel

Project Title: Characterization of mitochondrial protein import

Scott A. Rollins, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Yale University

Project Title: CD59 and tyrosine kinases in human T-cell activation

Christopher G. Rongo, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of California, Berkeley

Project Title: Neurotransmitter receptor localization in C elegans

David M. Roof, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Princeton University

Project Title: Genetic analysis of the yeast spindle pole body

Sean E. Rooney, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Rockefeller University

Project Title: Telomere deletion through homologous recombination

Patricia A. Rosa, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Washington University in St. Louis

Project Title: Analysis of 2 proteins form the murine H-2 complex

Mark D. Rose, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Project Title: Molecular genetics of yeast nucleus, pathway of nuclear fusion yeast

Sarah E. Ross, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Boston Children's Hospital

Project Title: Role of Forkhead foxo3a in longevity and tumorigenesis

Mark B. Roth, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Carnegie Institution for Science

Project Title: Chromosome organization of amphibian oocytes during the lampbrush stage

Ellen Rothenberg, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Project Title: Gix antigen induction in prothymocytes

Image of Joel Alonzo A. Rothschild, Ph.D.

Joel Alonzo A. Rothschild, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Rockefeller University

Project Title: Cellular growth and differentiation

Image of Daisy M. Roulland-Dussoix, Ph.D.

Daisy M. Roulland-Dussoix, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Stanford University

Project Title: Host-controlled modification

June L. Round, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs - Merck Fellow

California Institute of Technology

Project Title: The contribution of the intestinal microbiota to development of colon cancer

I am interested in how commensal bacteria influence the development of the intestinal immune system ¬†and their impact on disease.

Bacterial organisms residing within our bodies outnumber our own cells by an order of magnitude. We are often taught that bacteria cause disease and that our immune systems function to recognize and eradicate them. However, commensal bacteria do not make us sick and our immune systems tolerate their presence. My postdoctoral research is directed at understanding why we allow these bacteria to live with us. We have shown that colonization by one of these commensal organisms ¬†has beneficial consequences for its host as it can protect from ¬†development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). As 30 percent of IBD patients develop colonic cancer, colonization by beneficial bacteria might also serve as a potential cancer preventive. Additionally, in studying this bacterium we have uncovered novel mechanisms by which our bodies detect and tolerate bacteria. Understanding what organisms live within our bodies and deciphering how they individually influence the development of immune responses could ultimately lead to the creation of therapies to treat multiple human diseases.

Michael P. Rout, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Rockefeller University

Project Title: Characterization of the yeast nuclear pore complex

Antoine Roux, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs - HHMI Fellow

University of California, San Francisco

Project Title: Early stochastic events that affect aging

Ashley Rowland, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of California, Berkeley

Project Title: Ubiquitin regulation of neural development and cell fate

The goal of my postdoctoral research is to discover essential regulatory mechanisms that control neural developmental programs and cell fates in a complex organism. Abnormal neural development is central to many pediatric diseases and the source of many cancers originating in the nervous system. Development requires precise signaling pathways to facilitate cell-cell communication and maintain normal function and prevent disease. Thus, I propose to study neural development in Xenopus tropicalis embryos, an established model system, and identify evolutionarily conserved complexes in human embryonic stem cells undergoing neuronal differentiation. A small modifying protein, ubiquitin is an important part of regulatory pathways that control nearly every aspect of cell physiology and is frequently perturbed in cancer. Recent work has demonstrated that ubiquitin modification is an essential regulator of development and cell fate. I will use combination of genetic, proteomic, biochemical, and cell biology techniques to identify crucial ubiquitin complexes and reveal the molecular mechanism of neural differentiation programs. Together, this work will provide unprecedented insight into the regulation of early embryonic differentiation programs and reveal therapeutic avenues to treat human cancers.

Rahul Roy, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Harvard University

Project Title: Role of nuclear organization in gene regulation

Current Research: Probing gene expression in live eukaryotic cells at single molecule level

I majored in biotechnology and biochemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India and joined the biophysics and computational biology graduate program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. ¬†I received my doctorate in 2007 for my work on understanding the mechanism of various proteins involved in replication and transcription using in vitro single molecule techniques in the Taekjip Ha laboratory. I am currently a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Sunney Xie. ¬†My current research interests are twofold: 1) development of novel optical imaging techniques to probe the behavior of single biomolecules in live eukaryotic cells; and 2) implementation of single-molecule imaging to understand cellular gene expression and cell-fate determination. My efforts are geared towards extending the usefulness of single molecule techniques to mainstream biology.

Kole Roybal, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of California, San Francisco

Project Title: Engineering novel allosteric control over synthetic T cell receptors to improve cancer immunotherapy

I am interested in both the general biochemical principles that govern cellular signaling and the development of synthetic biology approaches to control complex signaling networks and cellular behavior. These interests are complimentary as synthetic biology is often informed by knowledge obtained from studying natural cellular signaling mechanisms refined by evolution. In Wendell Lim¬ís lab at UCSF, I am using this two-pronged approach to engineer new receptors and signaling networks to control the activity and behavior of therapeutic T cells. Such engineered multi-layered regulation of cellular activity — an important characteristic of naturally occurring biological systems — has the potential to make cell-based therapeutics safer and more effective, a critical concern for this burgeoning therapeutic approach.

I grew up in Louisiana, moved to Texas for undergrad and received my Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UTSW) in January 2013. There I studied fundamental cellular and biochemical mechanisms that regulate T cell activation at the systems-scale in Christoph W√ºlfing¬ís lab. Before graduate school, I did a wide-range of research. One of my major contributions was in Colleen McClung¬ís lab in the Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at UTSW where I characterized the first mouse model resembling human mania caused by disruption of the circadian rhythm transcription factor, Clock. Outside of lab, I enjoy biking, climbing, and exploring the San Francisco Bay Area.

Harvey Rubin , M.D., Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Project Title: Nucleic acid protein interactions in SV40 T antigens

David Rubinstein , M.D., Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Michael Reese Hospital

Project Title: The role of hormones, especially insulin, in the permeability of various sugars through the cell membranes

Joan V. Ruderman, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Project Title: Synthesis of histone mRNA on the lampbrush chromosomes of Triturus oocytes by in situ hybridization

Adam D. Rudner, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Harvard Medical School

Project Title: Hst3 and Hst4

Gordon S. Rule, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Stanford University

Project Title: NMR and molecular genetics of antibody structure

Emily J. Rundlet, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

The University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Structure-based vaccine design targeting mpox antigen A27

The international outbreak of mpox (monkeypox) in 2022 incited global health concerns and underscored the need for an innovative vaccine. However, little is known about potential vaccine targets within the causative orthopoxvirus, mpox virus.

Dr. Emily Rundlet will explore the structure and function of potential mpox vaccine targets in Dr. Jason McLellan’s lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Rundlet will structurally characterize antigen complexes using cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography, which will enable her to probe their function in the viral lifecycle and design vaccine candidates. In sum, Dr. Rundlet’s work is expected to provide valuable insights into mpox biology and pave the way for future mpox vaccines.

Dr. Rundlet developed her expertise in structural biology in Dr. Scott Blanchard’s lab at Weill Cornell Medicine. During her graduate studies, Dr. Rundlet used cryo-EM and single-molecule FRET assays to make important discoveries about protein translation. With these methods, Dr. Rundlet elucidated how the ribosome initiates movement of tRNAs during protein synthesis and demonstrated that mRNA decoding by ribosomes is kinetically and structurally different in humans and bacteria. Now Dr. Rundlet is using her expertise to uncover the structural secrets of orthopoxviruses to guide vaccine design and prevent future outbreaks.

Christopher P. Rusconi, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Duke University

Project Title: Effect of gene position on ribozyme substrate choice

Paul R. Russell, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of Sussex

Project Title: Control of mitosis in fission yeast

Andrew F. Russo, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of California, San Diego

Project Title: Developmental regulation of neuroendocrine gene expression

Urs S. Rutishauser, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Project Title: Fiber fractionation

Ilya Ruvinsky, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Massachusetts General Hospital

Project Title: Comparative genomics and neuronal differentiation

Taehyun Ryu, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Harvard Medical School

Project Title: Novel roles of ultraconserved elements in genome integrity

Ultraconserved elements (UCEs) are a set of DNA sequences that exhibit perfect conservation across the genomes. I learned of UCEs and their putative role in maintaining genome integrity at a seminar by Dr. Chao-ting Wu. Scattered across genomes, unique, and 200bps or greater in length, UCEs have remained unchanged for over 300 million years. Yet, their extreme sequence conservation is still a mystery. Although my Ph.D. training is in the DNA repair field, I decided to join Dr. Chao-ting‚Äôs lab as a postdoctoral researcher and explore the biology of UCEs. Previous studies have demonstrated that UCEs can contain transcription factor binding motifs an function as enhancers to regulate tissue-specific transcription. However, no regulatory or proteincoding functions can explain such extreme sequence conservation. My research will focus on testing a model that can explicitly address such an explanation. I hypothesize that homologous UCEs compare their sequences via pairing and any detected discrepancies in sequence or copy number will lead to cell death and/or disease onset. As a result, genome integrity would be maintained by culling out cells carrying deleterious rearrangements. I will assay this model with different approaches – a) computational analyses, b) CRISPR-based genome editing, and c) imaging techniques. Ultimately, the potential of UCEs to sense and cull deleterious rearrangements genome-wide offers a unique yet intriguing and still largely unexplored potential general strategy for treating diseases derived from rearrangements, regardless of the etiology of diseases.

Christelle Sabatier, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Stanford University

Project Title: Mechanisms of synaptic differentiation

Alvaro Sagasti, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

New York University

Project Title: Regional patterning and asymmetry in the zebrafish forebrain

Wesley N. Saintilnord, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Washington University in St. Louis

Project Title: The functional role of transposable element-derived transcripts in cancer progression

Dr. Wesley Saintilnord is interested in how transposable elements (TEs), DNA sequences that can move from one location in a genome to another, can exploit epigenetic pathways that then lead to their aberrant reactivation in cancer cells to rewire gene expression programs. In his fellowship, Saintilnord will examine how TEs functionally contribute to cancer progression.

Saintilnord developed his expertise in epigenetic mechanisms during his Ph.D. research at the University of Kentucky in Dr. Yvonne Fondufe-Mittendorf’s lab now at the Van Andel Institute. In his first project, Saintilnord showed that cadmium exposure changes how many genes are turned on during sperm development by affecting DNA methylation. In another study, he found that certain cancer-associated variants of a histone protein make DNA wrap more tightly, changing how genes are expressed. Collectively, his research demonstrates how environmental exposure, and oncogenic mutations rewire gene expression through epigenetic pathways.

Now, in Dr. Ting Wang’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis, he will dissect why cancer cells take control of TEs for gene regulation and how TE-generated transcripts drive tumorigenesis. He will develop a high-throughput screen to evaluate tumor-enriched TE transcripts in classical cancer phenotypes. Then, Saintilnord will evaluate which of these transcripts encode functional proteins that modulate cell signaling and chromatin dynamics. Saintilnord’s studies will provide fundamental insights into TE biology in cancer cells and may reveal novel therapeutic strategies to combat TE-mediated oncogenic programs.

Yoshitaka Saito , M.D., Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

National Institutes of Health

Project Title: The biosynthesis of proteins and peptides

Sofie Salama, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Massachusetts General Hospital

Project Title: A system to identify novel mammalian regulators

Nina R. Salama, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Stanford University

Project Title: H pylori genes expressed in gastric mucosa infection

Margarita Salas, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

New York University

Project Title: RNA code

Andrej Sali, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fund

Harvard University

Project Title: Kinetics of protein folding

Robert P. Sandman, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Instituto Superiore di Sanita /
Universite de Paris, France

Project Title: Carbohydrate metabolism

Stephen W. Santoro, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Scripps Research Institute

Project Title: Directed evolution of a site-specific recombinase

Kei Saotome, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs - HHMI Fellow

Scripps Research Institute

Project Title: Molecular structure and mechanism of Piezo mechanotransduction channels

Piezo proteins are ion channels that sense mechanical force in various physiological pathways, including touch sensation, breathing, and vascular development. Mutations in Piezo cause diseases associated with mechanotransduction defects, including distal arthrogryposis and dehydrated hereditary stomatocytosis. Piezos are unrelated to other known ion channels, and how they transduce mechanical force into channel opening remains unknown. As a joint postdoc in Andrew Ward and Ardem Patapoutian labs, I use cryo-electron microscopy and other biophysical approaches to gain a mechanistic understanding of Piezo function.”

Carmen Sapienza, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of Utah

Project Title: Human polymorphisms due to genomic rearrangements

Anand S. Sarabhai, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

University of Oregon

Project Title: Control of protein synthesis in phage infected cells

Molly R. Sargen, Ph.D. Jane Coffin Childs Fellow

Princeton University

Project Title: Cross-Domain Chemical Communication Drives Host-Virus Interactions

Viruses have immense potential to influence the fates of individual cells, multicellular communities, and entire organisms. Nonetheless, vast gaps exist in our understanding of the interactions between viruses and their host cells. Molly Sargen, Ph.D., is specifically fascinated by how some viruses can co-exist with their hosts even though the interests of a virus and a cell are usually incompatible. Her goal is to use models of bacteria and their viruses (phages) to define the principles that drive host-virus interactions, including how each entity manipulates the interaction to its own advantage.

As part of her Ph.D. research in Sophie Helaine’s lab at Harvard Medical School, she showed that phages that are embedded in Salmonella block other phages from infecting the same bacterium through defense mechanisms that they strategically avoid during their own replication. She found that phages also deploy these defense mechanisms to compete with other phages that inhabit the same host. Strikingly, these phage-phage interactions occur while Salmonella infects mammalian immune cells called macrophages and thereby can influence the outcome of Salmonella infections. Thus, Sargen showed how host-virus interactions have implications beyond one host cell and one virus.

Now as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow in Bonnie Bassler’s lab at Princeton University, Sargen will investigate how phages eavesdrop on bacterial communication called quorum sensing to inform their behavior: namely, whether they stably replicate with the host or undergo lytic replication that kills the host. In particular, she is interested in uncovering the mechanisms by which different cues influence these divergent virus lifestyles. Sargen notes that beyond advancing our basic understanding of viral behavior, her discoveries have the potential to inform the development of biomedical therapies that use or control viruses.