Three Penn Scientists Chosen as 2021 Pew Scholars

PHILADELPHIA: The Pew Charitable Trusts named Kellie A. Jurado, PhD, Presidential Assistant Professor of Microbiology, and Colin Conine, PhD, an assistant professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, both in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, as two of 22 early-career researchers nationwide selected as 2021 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust have also selected Liling Wan, PhD, an assistant professor of Cancer Biology, to join four other researchers in the U.S. as the 2021 class of Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research.

The 2021 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences were chosen from 198 applicants nominated by leading academic institutions and researchers across the United States. These scientists will receive funding over the next four years as they investigate timely questions surrounding human health and disease. Conine will investigate how regulatory RNAs carried by sperm influence embryonic development and offspring phenotype. Jurado will examine how cells in the placenta protect an embryo from being rejected by the maternal immune system.

The five early-career scholars who comprise the 2021 class of Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research will each receive a four-year grant to advance cutting-edge research into the development, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. This is the eighth year that the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust has partnered with Pew to support researchers as they investigate breakthroughs to advance treatments and cures for the complex disease. Wan will investigate how assemblies of proteins come together to regulate the expression of genes and how dysregulation of this process contributes to cancer.