Catarina Homem, group leader of the Proliferation and Fate Regulation of Stem Cells Lab was selected by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) as International Research Scholar. This international program selected 41 outstanding early career scientists around the world to receive a total of $650,000 over five years.
HHMI and partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation have established this program to develop scientific talent worldwide, based on the philosophy “People, Not Projects”.
The main focus of Catarina’s research is understand how metabolism and nutrition influence the growth of stem cells at the proper place and time, and how mistakes in this process can lead to developmental defects and diseases. This award will provide to Catarina Homem a flexible funding to explore with freedom, and if necessary, change the direction of the investigation.
HHMI and partners announced the 2017 International Research Scholars competition in March 2016. The competition was open to early-career scientists who held a full-time position at research-oriented university, medical school, or non-profit institution, and had been running their own labs for less than seven years. Scientists also had to work in an eligible country and have received training for at least one year in the United States or the United Kingdom.
The press release can be found in the News Section here.