Mary Kearney Received 2021 NIH Director's Award
Mary Kearney received a 2021 NIH Director's Award with other members of the CCR Women Scientists Advisors (WSAs) for "demonstrating extraordinary initiative, leadership, and creativity to assess and respond to career development and workplace issues in the wake of the pandemic."
Wei-Shau Hu Received 2021 Distinguished Research Career Award
Wei-Shau Hu was selected by the Center for Retrovirus Research (CRR) of The Ohio State University to receive the 2021 Distinguished Research Career Award. This annual award honors the distinguished research career of a scientist working in the field of retrovirology. The retrovirologist is nominated by student and faculty members of the CRR and as part of the award recognition is invited to give a special lecture to all members of The Ohio State University biomedical research community, co-sponsored by the CRR, the Infectious Diseases Institute, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the campus-wide Virology Forum. Dr. Hu received the award "in recognition of her substantial body of work contributing to our understanding of retroviral recombination, RNA packaging, and virus assembly." The title of her keynote seminar was “How Does HIV-1 Transfer Genetic Information to Its Progeny?”
Mary Kearney Selected to Receive 2021 NCI Director's Award
Mary Kearney has been nominated by CCR Director Tom Misteli and selected to receive an individual 2021 NCI Director's Award for Workplace Wellness in recognition of her initiative and accomplishments to improve workplace wellness through exemplary leadership and mentoring.
Confirmed Talent Award from French Government
Geraldine Vilmen (Freed lab) received an award from the French Government in December 2021 as a "confirmed talent" representing France overseas. She is part of an esteemed group of young people highlighting opportunities worldwide.
D.Phil. in Systems Approaches to Biomedical Science Awarded by University of Oxford
Hana Valer (Freed lab) was awarded a D.Phil. degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences by the University of Oxford in November 2021 after successfully defending her dissertation on the interaction between influenza A virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and cellular GTPase Rab11a. Her project was a collaboration between the Dunn School of Pathology and Division of Structural Biology (STRUBI) at the University of Oxford and the Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron science facility.
PNAS Cozzarelli Prize Awarded to Pathak and Hu Labs
A recent study published by the research groups of Vinay Pathak and Wei-Shau Hu in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (“HIV-1 uncoats in the nucleus near sites of integration,” PNAS 117:5486-5493, 2020) was awarded the 2020 Cozzarelli Prize in the class of Biomedical Sciences. The Cozzarelli Prize is awarded to just 6 papers chosen from nearly 4,000 published research articles, one in each of the 6 classes of the National Academy of Sciences. They represent the top scientific research published in PNAS in 2020. To read more about this award, click here.
Uncoating of an infectious HIV-1 complex is shown at left. Click here to download the original video (Movie S1 in the paper).
This study was also featured on the website of the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute (“New study overturns conventional understanding of how HIV infection occurs”) and highlighted on the front cover of the Cold Spring Harbor 2020 Retroviruses Meeting abstract book.
NIH Fellows Awards for Research Excellence
Beatriz Alvarado Hernandez (Zheng lab), Jennifer Groebner (Kearney lab), Yuta Hikichi (Freed lab), and James Kirui (Freed lab) received 2022 NIH Fellows Awards for Research Excellence (FARE) for travel to attend and present their work at a scientific meeting in the U.S. next year. This award acknowledges outstanding scientific research performed by intramural postdoctoral fellows, based on scientific merit, originality, experimental design, and overall quality and presentation of the abstracts. The following postdoctoral fellows received 2021 FARE awards: Chenglei Li (Pathak lab), Jonathan Rawson (Hu lab), and Chad Coomer (Compton lab).
Intramural AIDS Research Fellowships
Intramural AIDS Research Fellowship (IARF) awards from the Office of AIDS Research, Office of Intramural Research, and Office of Intramural Research & Training in the National Institutes of Health include full stipend support to successful candidates who demonstrate outstanding scientific potential through both an imaginative and thoughtful research plan and a well thought out career development plan. The following postdoctoral fellows received recent IARF awards to support their research projects:
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Hana Veler (Freed lab): “Investigating the interaction between the MA domain of Gag and the cytoplasmic tail of gp41 during HIV-1 maturation” (2022)
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Adam A. Capoferri (Kearney Lab): “Dynamics of HIV-1 Proviral Expression in Untreated People Living with HIV” (2022)
- Jonathan P. Kitzrow (Hu lab): " Understanding the cellular life of HIV-1 RNA, from transcription to degradation" (2022)
- Rokeya Siddiqui (Pathak lab): "Identification of Host Dependency Factors That Influence Nuclear Import of HIV-1 Capsid" (2021, 2022)
- Yuta Hikichi (Freed lab): "Mechanism of HIV-1 Env-Mediated Drug Resistance in Vitro and in Vivo" (2021)
- Alex Kleinpeter (Freed lab): "Elucidating the Role of IP6 in HIV-1 Assembly and Maturation" (2020, 2021)
- Tomas Kroupa (Rein lab): "Kinetics of Specific and Nonspecific Interactions of HIV-1 Gag with RNA" (2020)
- Charles (Chad) Coomer (Compton lab): "Revealing the Mechanism IFITM3-Mediated Inhibition of HIV-1 Envelope Using Advanced Fluorescence and Super-Resolution Microscopy" (2020)
- Alice Duchon (Hu lab): "Understanding the Interplay between HIV-1 Gag and the Viral RNA Genome That Facilitates Virus Assembly" (2019, 2020)
- Cheng man (Bonnie) Lun (Freed lab): "Antagonism of HIV-1 Replication by Cellular Factor MARCH E3 Ubiquitin Ligases and Viral Escape Pathways" (2019, 2020)
Wei-Shau Hu Elected to American Academy of Microbiology
Wei-Shau Hu was elected as a Fellow in the American Society of Microbiology (AAM) in February 2021. The AAM is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology, the world’s largest society dedicated to advancing the microbial sciences. AAM Fellows are recognized as distinguished researchers who are "elected through a highly selective, annual, peer review process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology....Each elected Fellow has built an exemplary career in basic and applied research, teaching, clinical and public health, industry or government service."
Dr. Hu is widely recognized as a key authority on retroviral recombination, RNA packaging, and virus assembly. Her innovations in combining molecular biology and biochemical approaches with state-of-the-art microscopy techniques for single-virion particle analysis have led to significant advancements in HIV molecular virology research.
New Investigator Scholarships, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections
Adam Capoferri (Kearney lab), Jennifer Groebner (Kearney lab), Chenglei Li (Pathak lab), and Jonathan Rawson (Hu lab) were awarded New Investigator Scholarships to present their research findings at the 2021 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). CROI scholarship awardees in 2020 include Alice Duchon (Hu lab), Jenna Hasson (Kearney lab), Kristi Huik (Maldarelli lab), Chenglei Li (Pathak lab), Mohamed Husen Munshi (Pathak lab), Sean Patro (Kearney lab), and Jonathan Rawson (Hu lab).
Eric Freed Received 2020 NCI Women Scientists Advisors Mentoring and Leadership Award
In recognition of his commitment to mentoring and his role in promoting diversity, Eric Freed received the 2020 NCI Women Scientists Advisors Mentoring and Leadership Award, which honors "exceptional dedication, leadership, and tireless efforts to promote and nurture NCI women scientists at all stages of their careers."
Eric Freed Received 2020 Distinguished Research Career Award
Eric Freed was selected by the Center for Retrovirus Research of The Ohio State University to receive the 2020 Distinguished Research Career Award. This annual award honors the distinguished research career of a scientist working in the field of retrovirology. The retrovirologist is nominated by student and faculty members of the Center for Retrovirus Research and as part of the award recognition is invited to give a special lecture to all members of the Ohio State University biomedical research community.
Saliha Majdoul Received Sallie Rosen Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women Scientists
Saliha Majdoul (Compton lab, 1st on left in photo below) was awarded a 2020 Sallie Rosen Kaplan (SRK) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women Scientists at the National Cancer Institute. The SRK Fellowship is a highly competitive annual program that provides additional mentoring opportunities, networking, seminars, and workshops to help prepare NCI’s female postdoctoral fellows for the competitive nature of the job market and help them to transition to independent research careers. The highlight of this selective program is a 30-week course entitled "Career Building for Women in Science," which includes two day-long workshops. The SRK Fellowship also includes mentoring opportunities with successful women scientists from government, industry, and academia.
2020 Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fellows
Travel Awards, 39th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology (ASV 2020)
Haibin Liu, Lulu Yu, and Beatriz Alvarado Hernandez (Zheng lab) and Melissa Fernandez (Freed lab) were awarded American Society for Virology Postdoctoral Scholar Travel Awards for their abstract submissions to ASV 2020 (meeting canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic).
Dr. Eddie Méndez Award
Melissa Fernandez (Freed lab) was selected to be a recipient of the 2nd Annual Dr. Eddie Méndez Award, which recognizes outstanding postdoctoral scientists who are conducting research in cancer biology or infectious diseases. As an awardee, Dr. Fernandez will present her latest research findings at a scientific symposium in 2020 honoring Dr. Eddie Méndez and will have the opportunity to discuss her work with faculty members of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) awarded a 2020-2021 Research Fellowship to Yuta Hikichi (Freed lab) for his project "Mutations in the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein contribute to HIV drug resistance." The fellowship program sponsored by this society supports meritorious biomedical research projects undertaken in NIH laboratories by Japanese postdoctoral researchers.