Four Rockefeller researchers named finalists in Blavavtik Awards for Young Scientists

Four Rockefeller scientists — head of laboratory Tom W. Muir, postdocs Valerie Horsley and Andreas Keller and former postdoc Matthew Evans — have been named finalists for the second annual Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. Established by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Blavatnik Charitable Foundation to recognize the contributions of young scientists and engineers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the program awards finalists with grants between $5,000 and $10,000. The winners in each category, to be announced in November, will receive an additional $10,000 to $15,000 respectively.

Muir, who is Richard E. Salomon Professor and head of the Selma and Lawrence Ruben Laboratory of Synthetic Protein Chemistry, studies the physicochemical basis of protein function in complex systems of biomedical interest. His lab has combined the tools of organic chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology to develop new technologies that provide insight into how proteins work, research with wide potential for elucidating protein function in the postgenomic era.

Horsley, a postdoc in Elaine Fuchs’s Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, studies the transcriptional regulation of skin development. Recent investigations led by Horsley and Fuchs identified a protein, NFATc1, that triggers proliferation of skin stem cells and leads to hair growth in mice.

Keller, a research associate in Leslie B. Vosshall’s Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, investigates the genetics of olfaction. Recent work by Keller and Vosshall pinpointed genetic variations in a single odorant receptor, OR7D4, that determine whether an individual perceives the scent of androstenone — a derivative of testosterone — as pleasant, like vanilla, unpleasant, like urine, or odorless.

Evans, who completed postdoctoral training in Charles M. Rice’s Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease in June and is now assistant professor of microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, studies the mechanisms underlying viruses’ ability to identify suitable host cells and then enter them. Evans’s research focuses on the hepatitis C virus but the work offers potential insight into the workings of other viruses, including dengue and yellow fevers, ebola and HIV.

Among this year’s 16 finalists — nine faculty and seven postdocs — two faculty winners and three postdoctoral winners will be announced at the New York Academy of Sciences’ fifth annual Science and the City Gala, November 17 at Cipriani.

Past Rockefeller Blavatnik winners are Vosshall, a faculty winner in the 2007 competition, and Professor Tarun Kapoor, head of the Laboratory of Chemistry and Cell Biology, a faculty finalist last year.