The Rita Allen Foundation Announces 2022 Rita Allen Foundation Scholars
The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2022 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, celebrating five early-career leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health. The selected Scholars will receive grants of up to $110,000 annually for a maximum of five years to conduct innovative research on critical topics in cancer, immunology, and neuroscience—including how 3D DNA structures in the nucleus of cells impact gene regulation, developing novel molecular tools to understand and analyze brain circuits, and investigating the evolution of the cerebral cortex.
“We are delighted to welcome a new class of remarkable scientists seeking novel solutions to complex problems at the frontier of biological knowledge,” said Elizabeth Good Christopherson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Rita Allen Foundation. “The COVID19 pandemic made even clearer the importance of decades of biomedical research. The fundamental research these scientists are leading will lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s transformative medicine.”
Since 1976, the Rita Allen Foundation has invested in discovery science—transformative research of above-average risk with promise for outcomes to advance our understanding of human biology—supporting close to 200 biomedical scientists at the early stages of their careers. Scholars have gone on to make fundamental contributions to their fields of study and have won recognition including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize in Medicine, the Lasker-Koshland Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science, and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
The 2022 Scholars were nominated by research institutions in the United States and selected by the Rita Allen Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee of leading scientists and clinicians.
The members of the 2022 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars are:
Kevin Monahan, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Milton E. Cassel Scholar
Ahmed Abdelfattah, Brown University
Christopher Barnes, Stanford University
Ryan Flynn, Harvard Medical School
Maria Antonietta Tosches, Columbia University