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First recipients of the Vallee Foundation Young Investigator Awards

The 2013 winners are:

Dr Kirsty L Spalding, Senior Researcher in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) who studies obesity by investigating the maintenance and regulation of fat cells.

Dr David Tobin, Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) whose research centers on the direct observation of the response of immune cells to pathogens in zebra fish. 

Dr Feng Zhang, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Chemistry and Principal Investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a core member of the Broad Institute (Cambridge, MA) who investigates the genetic and circuit-level mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disease and the technologies that enable nervous system repair.

The Young Investigator Award recognizes outstanding young scientists at a critical juncture in their careers.  It provides $250,000 in discretionary funds for basic biomedical research.  Candidates are competitively selected by their originality of research, innovation, quality of the proposal as evidenced by ideas and execution, record of accomplishment, and clear evidence that the awardee can carry out an independent research program.