Saintilnord, Reynolds named exceptional early-career research fellows
WashU Medicine postdoctoral researchers have been named Jane Coffin Childs Fellows
Courtesy of Wenjin Zhang and Donovan PhuaWashU Medicine postdoctoral researchers Wesley Saintilnord, PhD, in the Department of Genetics (left) and Matthew Reynolds, PhD, in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (right) have been named Jane Coffin Childs Fellows. The prestigious award supports early-career scientists conducting biomedical research that could inform the cause and treatment of human disease.
Two postdoctoral researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been awarded fellowships from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research. The three-year fellowship supports the most promising postdoctoral researchers pursuing fundamental biomedical research, with a particular emphasis on advancing our understanding of the causes, treatments and cures for human disease, especially cancer.
Saintilnord works in the lab of Ting Wang, PhD, the Sanford C. and Karen P. Loewentheil Distinguished Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Genetics. Saintilnord’s graduate work focused on how environmental exposures and cancer-associated variants of proteins that package DNA in the genome alter gene activity. His postdoctoral research focuses on the intersection of epigenetics, genomics and cancer. Specifically, he studies transposable elements that act like shapeshifters in DNA — moving from one location in an organism’s genetic makeup to another and disrupting gene regulation. He is particularly interested in how these elements rewire genetic pathways in ways that can drive tumor formation. Saintilnord’s fellowship will provide the opportunity for him to gain further insight into the biology of cancer cells. His research has the potential to also inform new therapies that either target or harness transposable elements to slow or halt tumor growth.
Reynolds works in the lab of Rui Zhang, PhD, an associate professor in WashU Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. His graduate research specialized in the network of proteins, called actins, that provide cells their shape and structure — the cytoskeleton. Like a long, beaded necklace, filamentous actin strings together to form bundles that prop up cells’ shape and help them move. Reynolds developed machine-learning techniques that reconstructed the properties of cytoskeletal components in new ways. He now plans to apply his expertise to explore the interactions among other cytoskeletal proteins in single-celled parasites. Reynolds’ fellowship will provide the opportunity for him to illuminate the organization of parasite cells and identify potential targets for novel therapies that could treat diseases caused by these organisms.
Saintilnord and Reynolds join 27 other postdoctoral researchers selected for this year’s Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship, considered one of the most prestigious of its kind in the country. Each of them will receive more than $228,000 in support, including funds for research and travel throughout the three years of the fellowship. Since its inception, more than 1,800 fellows and grantees in laboratories spanning from North America and Europe to Japan and Australia have received this competitive award.
