HHMI

april pruitt Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed four times more often in boys than in girls, but scientists don’t fully understand why. Gilliam Fellow April Pruitt, a PhD student at Yale University, studies estradiol, a form of estrogen, and how it interacts with genetic mutations linked to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Every great scientific career begins with a question no one has been able to answer — and a scientist stubborn enough to keep asking it. This series looks back at the careers of some of HHMI’s most distinguished scientists — people whose contributions have changed what we know about life itself, and whose stories reflect the best of what science, and scientists, can be.

KEY TAKEAWAYS Janelia is betting on a decade-long scientific effort to understand how the brain generates behavior, pursuing a mechanistic account that links molecules, neurons, circuits, physiology, computation, and action in a living vertebrate.

Hadassah mendez-vazquez Gilliam Fellow Hadassah Mendez-Vazquez is interested in how neurodegeneration happens. She studies manganism, a neurological disorder caused by exposure to high levels of the essential nutrient manganese.

Chevy Chase, MD — The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is pleased to announce the selection of 176 undergraduates from 109 institutions across 36 states and territories as the inaugural cohort of Cech Fellows, launching a new summer research program honoring Nobel laureate and former HHMI President Thomas R. Cech.

Eavesdropping on the Brain’s Inner Monologue may 26, 2026 By examining what happens in the brain during sleep, HHMI Investigator Massimo Scanziani and his team are uncovering how the brain imagines scenarios without any input from the outside world. “How is it even possible to imagine a scenario and to unfold it in front of the eyes of your mind without twitching a muscle?” Scanziani says.

Izaiah Ornelas Working with understudied animals offers scientists major opportunities for discovery — but also presents cumbersome technical challenges. Gilliam Fellow Izaiah Ornelas is working to help reduce some of those barriers. At the University of California, Berkeley, Ornelas is earning his PhD in Hanna Gray Fellow James Nuñez’s labexternal link, opens in a new tab.

Taking Imaging to the Molecular Level April 2, 2026 HHMI Investigators Eric Gouaux and Michael Rosen are combining AI with innovative techniques to improve the interpretation of cryo-ET images, enabling scientists to identify molecules that make up larger structures like tightly wound strands of DNA and sites where neurons communicate.

KEY TAKEAWAYS HHMI Investigator Massimo Scanziani and his team are studying what happens in different parts of the brain during REM sleep, a phase of slumber associated with vivid dreams. The team found that during REM sleep, the brain’s motor center still sends commands to turn the head left or right, even though the animal is immobile.

Chevy Chase, MD —The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) BioInteractiveexternal link, opens in a new tab program and National Rural Education Associationexternal link, opens in a new tab (NREA) today announced a new partnership to expand access to free, high-quality science education resources and professional learning opportunities for life sciences teachers in rural communities across the United States.