Two Whitehead Institute researchers receive prestigious fellowships from Pew Charitable Trusts

The Pew Charitable Trusts has selected Whitehead Institute Member Siniša Hrvatin to be a 2023 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. The Pew Scholar program supports early-career investigators of outstanding promise who work in areas of science relevant to the advancement of human health. The award provides four years of funding to invest in exploratory research. Hrvatin, who joined the Whitehead Institute faculty in 2021, is one of 22 scientists selected to receive this year’s honor, chosen from among 188 nominations submitted by leading U.S. academic and research institutions.

In addition, the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences has selected Luiza de Oliveira Saad—a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien—to be one of 10 postdoctoral fellows from across Latin America to receive two years of funding to conduct research. Pew’s Latin American program provides support for young scientists from Latin America who are receiving postdoctoral training under the mentorship of prominent biomedical scientists in the United States.

“I deeply appreciate the Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences Program’s support for my lab’s work studying how animals enter hibernation,” says Hrvatin, who is also an assistant professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“The ability to maintain nearly constant body temperature is a key feature of mammalian and avian physiology; but, when challenged by harsh environments, many species decrease body temperature and initiate energy-conserving states of torpor and hibernation,” Hrvatin notes. “Developing new tools and approaches to study mammalian hibernation may enable us to answer fundamental questions of how mammals initiate, regulate, and survive these extraordinary states. And those discoveries could have profound medical applications — such as new approaches to protect neurons from ischemic injury and to preserve organs for transplantation.”

Hrvatin is the fourth current Whitehead Member to be named a Pew Scholar, following in the steps of Mary Gehring (2010), Jing-Ke Weng (2014), and Ankur Jain (2022). Former Whitehead Fellow Fernando Camargo, now professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University, also became a Pew Scholar in 2010.

Saad is the second Whitehead Institute researcher to have been named a Pew Latin American Fellow. “Receiving the Pew Latin American Fellows Program scholarship is an extraordinary honor, one for which I am beyond grateful,” she says. “It is a great source of pride for me to be a part of a program striving to make a meaningful impact in advances of research in Latin America.”

Saad earned a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences with qualifications in Marine Biology, at São Paulo State University, Brazil. She then earned both a master's degree and a PhD in Biological Sciences (Zoology) from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her doctoral work included a research internship in  Reddien lab, investigating the dynamics controlling eye loss in a new cave planarian species.

Her current work in the Reddien lab focuses on investigating the mechanisms that govern regeneration in the shell-less mollusk Berghia stephanieae, toward the goal of establishing it as a novel model for gaining insights into the principles of regeneration. Saad's specific objective is characterizing the molecular mechanisms utilized by Berghia cells to reset positional information and elucidating the role of these signaling pathways in the process of regeneration.

“The mechanisms underlying regeneration are well understood in only a few model species. I hope to amplify this knowledge in a new mollusk species, offering new insights into fundamental regenerative biology,” she explains.