YSM Scientists Receive NIH Support for Bold Research Ideas

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has honored a group of Yale School of Medicine (YSM) scientists with High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) grants. These esteemed awards support innovative and high-impact ideas that may be deemed too risky or premature for conventional peer-reviewed funding mechanisms.

Of the 72 U.S. investigators receiving 67 grants in 2024, six are from YSM—more than from any other institution. The NIH awarded a total of approximately $207 million in HRHR grants, with Yale-led research receiving $17.1 million.

“The HRHR program champions exceptionally bold and innovative science that pushes the boundaries of biomedical and behavioral research,” said Tara A. Schwetz, PhD, NIH deputy director for program coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives. “The groundbreaking science pursued by these researchers is poised to have a broad impact on human health.”

New Innovator Awards, which support unusually innovative research from early-career investigators, were granted to Salil Garg, MD, PhD, assistant professor of laboratory medicine; Diyendo Massilani, PhD, assistant professor of genetics; and Wan-Ling Tseng, PhD, assistant professor in the Child Study Center.

Garg’s project, Genomic Encoding of Hetero-geneity, investigates how different cell states emerge and are maintained—processes crucial in development and in such diseases as cancer. The findings could provide insights into cell state regulation, potentially leading to new strategies for targeting tumor heterogeneity and treatment failures in cancer.

Massilani, in Tracing the Evolutionary History of Human Adaptive Traits Through Ancient DNA, will use a novel method to retrieve ancient human DNA from sediments, enabling genomic analysis without skeletal remains. The study focuses on several archaeological sites in Mongolia, examining 500,000 years of human occupation to understand past population dynamics in the region and the traits that shaped the groups’ survival.

Tseng’s project, Multi-Level Mechanisms and Predictors of Irritability: An Innovative Approach Bridging Laboratory and Real-world Measures, will identify neural, social, and environmental factors contributing to chronic irritability in children, which affects 10% of U.S. youth and leads to severe mental health issues. The goal is to develop effective interventions for this common issue in child psychiatry.

Julien Berro, PhD, associate professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and of cell biology; Xiaolei Su, PhD, associate professor of cell biology; and Boston University collaborator Alexander A. Green, PhD, received Transformative Research Awards, which fund interdisciplinary research that could create or challenge existing paradigms. In their project, Programming Cellular Behavior by Mechanical Forces, the team will develop programmable systems that can trigger specific cellular actions in response to mechanical signals, laying the foundation for new therapeutic strategies to target these signals in diseased cells.

Sedona Murphy, PhD, associate research scientist in cell biology and YSM science fellow, received an Early Independence Award to study Spatial Regulation of Epigenetic Memory, a process crucial for development but often disrupted in diseases like cancer. The study seeks to uncover how chromatin regulates gene repression and epigenetic stability, ultimately influencing cell behavior and plasticity.

-Jennifer Torrance