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Jun Huh, PhD |
UMass Medical School immunologist Jun R. Huh, PhD, is one of 22 exceptional early-career scientists to be named 2016 Pew Biomedical Scholars by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides $240,000 in funding over four years to young investigators with outstanding promise who are doing biomedical research relevant to the advancement of human health. The grants support independent research by these outstanding individuals, who are within five years of their appointment as assistant professors. Dr. Huh, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases & Immunology, joined UMMS in 2013.
“The Pew award will give me an opportunity to test one or two exciting hypotheses that would not have been funded through conventional grant mechanisms,” said Huh. “I am looking forward to interacting with the other Pew scholars and the council members at the annual meetings.”
His lab will use the Pew funding for its research to identify chemical and genetic tools for regulating pro-inflammatory immune cells in illnesses such as irritable bowel disease, and bacterial metabolites that regulate host immune responses. “We are also interested in studying epigenetic regulatory mechanisms as well as the mechanisms through which immune cells modulate neural development,” said Huh.
After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in microbiology from Seoul National University in Korea and completing military duty, Huh came to the United States, earning his PhD in biology in 2005 from the California Institute of Technology. He was honored with the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2006; the National Institutes of Health Pathway to Independence Award in 2011; the Smith Family Awards Program for Excellence in Biomedical Research in 2013; and was named a Searle Scholar in 2015.
As a 2016 Pew Scholar, Huh joins a nationwide consortium of elite researchers that includes seven UMMS colleagues. Scholars are selected by a national advisory committee composed of eminent scientists, including committee chair Craig C. Mello, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine and distinguished professor of molecular medicine and cell & developmental biologyat UMMS, himself a 1995 Pew scholar and a 2006 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine.
“Today, funding for basic research is more important than ever,” said Dr. Mello in the Pew Charitable Trusts announcement of the 2016 awardees. “But early-career scientists require support in other ways, too. The Pew biomedical programs provide new scholars with a wealth of practical advice and encouragement from other scientists—which we all need to be successful.”
UMMS Pew Biomedical Scholars are:
Brian Kelch, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology (2014)
Thomas Fazzio, PhD, associate professor of molecular, cell & cancer biology (2011)
David Guertin, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine (2010)
Lambertus van den Berg, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine (2005)
Phillip Zamore, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Gretchen Stone Cook Chair of Biomedical Sciences and professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology (2000)
Craig Mello, PhD, 2006 Nobel Laureate, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine and distinguished professor of molecular medicine and cell biology (1995)
John Leong, MD, PhD, professor of microbiology & physiological systems (1992)
Additionally, two UMMS postdoctoral scholars have been named Pew Latin American Fellows in the Biomedical Sciences:
Alejandro Vasquez-Rifo, PhD (2014)
Juan Fuxman Bass, PhD (2012)
Learn more at the Pew website.
Related stories on UMassMedNow:
Viral infection during pregnancy causes autism-like behaviors in mice by triggering key immune reaction
Jun Huh named Searle Scholar for research on innate immunity
Huh awarded Smith Family Award for new investigators
Brian A. Kelch, PhD, named 2014 Pew Scholar
Fuxman Bass named 2012 Pew Latin American Fellow
Thomas Fazzio named 2011 Pew Scholar
