Assistant Professor Vignesh Kasinath Receives Pew Biomedical Science Grant

Jessica Helzer — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 03:57:01 +0000

Assistant Professor Vignesh Kasinath Receives Pew Biomedical Science Grant Jessica Helzer Tue, 08/12/2025 - 21:57

The Pew Charitable Trusts today announced the 22 researchers joining the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. These early-career scientists will receive four years of funding to uncover fundamental insights about human health and disease.

“For 40 years, Pew has supported young, talented researchers as they take creative approaches to solving big scientific questions,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Pew’s senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement. “This new class continues that legacy, and we look forward to seeing where their discoveries lead.”

The 2025 class—all early-career, junior faculty—marks the 40th group of Pew scholars to be awarded funding since the program’s founding in 1985. They join a rich network of more than 1,000 Pew-funded scientists and will have opportunities to meet annually to exchange ideas and form collaborations across disciplines.

“Pew-funded scientists have long contributed to biomedical research discoveries that have improved human health,” said Lee Niswander, Ph.D., a 1995 Pew scholar and chair of the program’s national advisory committee. “I’m confident this new class of scholars, with their innovative and creative approaches to scientific research, will continue this tradition.” Niswander is currently the CU Boulder Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCDB) Chair, Principal Investigator, and Distinguished Professor.

Dr. Kasinath will study how cells “silence” transposons, genetic elements whose movement within the genome can disrupt the function of genes.

Full Details on the 2025 Pew Scholars Awards

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How silencing a gene-silencer could lead to new cancer drugs

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 18:00:00 +0000

How silencing a gene-silencer could lead to new cancer drugs Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/25/2023 - 12:00

Deep inside our cells—each one complete with an identical set of genes—a molecular machine known as PRC2 plays a critical role in determining which cells become heart cells, versus brain or muscle or skin cells. When the machine is missing or broken, normal fetal development can’t occur. If it’s mutated, cells can grow uncontrollably, and cancer can arise—a fact that has made PRC2 a source of keen interest for drug developers.

New research by scientists at CU Boulder and Harvard Medical School offers an unprecedented look at how PRC2, or polycomb repressive complex 2, does its job and, specifically, how ribonucleic acid (RNA) helps it switch genes on and off. Vignesh Kasinath, Kasinath Lab at CU Boulder is a co-senior author and first author, Jiarui Song, is a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow in the Cech Lab at CU Boulder.

This research was published on September 21, 2023 in the journal Science. And other co-authors include Anne Gooding, Wayne Hemphill and Liqi Yao of CU Boulder and Brittney Love, Anne Robertson, Leonard Zon and Trista North of Harvard Medical School.

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