Two VP&S Researchers Named HHMI Investigators
Samuel Sternberg and Dmitriy Aronov, scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, are among 26 leading researchers named as new investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
HHMI investigators are established scientists who are working to push their research fields into new areas of inquiry. The appointments are highly sought after and provide each new investigator with stable and generous support for several years (this year, each new investigator will receive approximately $11 million over a seven-year term, which may be extended indefinitely pending scientific review). Nearly 1,000 eligible scientists applied through a national competition for this year’s appointments.
The new HHMI investigators
Dmitriy Aronov studies how a brief event, experienced only once, can become a memory that lasts a lifetime. To study such “episodic” memories, Aronov’s lab uses a unique memory specialist, the black-capped chickadee. Chickadees are birds that hide extraordinary amounts of food in their environment and use memory to find their caches later. Aronov’s lab studies this natural food-caching behavior to understand the neural processes that occur when the brain forms an episodic memory and when it recalls the memory later. One of the lab’s most recent studies reported that chickadees memorize each food location using brain cell activity akin to a barcode, findings that may shed light on how our brain creates memories for the events that make up our lives. Aronov is assistant professor of neuroscience and principal investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute.
The discovery of genome defense systems in bacteria known as CRISPR-Cas and the development of these systems for genome engineering highlight the biological power and technological potential of RNA-guided DNA control. Samuel Sternberg’s lab searches the genomes of bacteria, archaea, and viruses for additional hidden non-coding RNA molecules that can be converted into novel tools to precisely manipulate the human genome. Sternberg’s lab most recently discovered a widespread family of transcription factors that, surprisingly, use guide RNAs to control gene expression and that these proteins can be reprogrammed to downregulate the expression of various genes without cutting genes. A second recent paper described how certain bacterial transposons—ancestors of CRISPR—spread silently while preventing adverse fitness costs on the host and highlighted the multifunctional potential of transposon-encoded noncoding RNAs. Sternberg is assistant professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics.
Sternberg and Aronov join five other VP&S faculty members as HHMI investigators: Richard Axel, University Professor in the Department of Neuroscience; Gwyneth Card, associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience; Oliver Hobert, professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics; Michael Shadlen, professor in the Department of Neuroscience; and Charles Zuker, professor in the Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and Neuroscience.