News
11 April 2025
Road to Research: Q&A with Alex Garruss, Ph.D., Jim and Virginia Stowers Fellow
“There are few rewards as powerful and as elevating as making a clear, robust scientific observation that advances the field.”
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The Jim and Virginia Stowers Fellows program at the Stowers Institute seeks to advance scientific knowledge by funding early-career investigators who have distinguished themselves with novel and bold ideas to understand fundamental biological processes. Fellows are given a five-year term to pursue their own ideas independently.
Benning's work centers on a group of ancient bacteria called Alphaproteobacteria, which are thought to be the evolutionary ancestors of mitochondria—the energy-producing organelles in human cells. These bacteria survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, including volcanic vents and oceanic sediments, thanks to their specialized internal membranes.
Garruss is leveraging his knowledge and skills toward developing cutting-edge methodology for adapting artificial intelligence (AI) methods to approach central concepts governing RNA—a type of molecule integral for life for which many basic properties remain largely mysterious—from a fundamentally different angle.
Hall is working to accomplish two main goals during his time as a Fellow. His first goal is to streamline the genetic tools for manipulating M. lignano while his second goal is broader. Hall wants to expand and optimize gene editing tools that can be more universally applied to a wide variety of unstudied organisms.
News
11 April 2025
“There are few rewards as powerful and as elevating as making a clear, robust scientific observation that advances the field.”
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News
18 September 2024
Alex Garruss, Ph.D., and Nelson Hall, Ph.D., join the Institute with a unifying motivation to explore foundational biology, from RNA to flatworms.
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News
16 May 2025
Learn the biological basics of ribosomes—the molecular machines that build life-sustaining proteins—and why Stowers scientists are studying them.
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Press Release
15 May 2025
Arvind Pillai, Ph.D., from the University of Washington, and Friederike Benning, Ph.D., from Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital, will join the Institute in Fall 2025
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