Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is proud to announce that Yael David, PhD, chemical biologist leading The Yael David Lab and Associate Member of the Chemical Biology Program, has been selected as a 2024 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Chemistry. Dr. David is one of only 126 young scientists across the United States and Canada to be awarded this annual fellowship, one of the most competitive and esteemed awards available to early-career scholars. As part of the prestigious honor, Dr. David will receive two-year, $75,000 fellowship to support her research.
Dr. David’s research focuses on epigenetics — the study of how proteins, small molecules, and other factors lying above the genome can influence which genes in a cell are expressed. Epigenetic regulation relies on the dynamic modification of the two building blocks of chromatin: DNA and histone packaging proteins, to establish and maintain cell identity and fate. Her lab develops and utilizes chemical methods to synthesize site-specifically modified histones in vitro and in vivo and study the roles that these modifications play in disease states, with the goal of targeting these pathways for therapeutics.
Awarded annually since 1955, the Sloan Research Fellowships honor exceptional U.S. and Canadian researchers whose creativity, leadership, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders. Candidates are nominated by their fellow scientists and winners are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on a candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in their field. More than one thousand researchers are nominated each year. In addition to Dr. David, two additional faculty members from MSK have historically received a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, including Derek Tan, PhD, Chair of the Chemical Biology Program, Tri-Institutional Professor, and Eugene W. Kettering Chair, in 2007 and Daniel Bachovchin, PhD, Geoffrey Beene Junior Faculty Chair, in 2018.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a not-for-profit, mission-driven grantmaking institution dedicated to improving the welfare of all through the advancement of scientific knowledge. Founded in 1934 by industrialist and philanthropist Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the Foundation disburses approximately $80 million in grants each year and helped create some of the country’s most influential and enduring scientific institutions, including MSK. In 1945, Mr. Sloan and engineer Charles F. Kettering founded the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) on New York City’s Upper East Side, with the vision of harnessing the latest research techniques to conquer cancer.
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Annik Allen
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allena5@mskcc.org