Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Hannah Meyer, PhD, has been named a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar. The scholarship provides her lab with $100,000 annually for five years for cutting-edge research on the immune system. Specifically, the Meyer lab focuses on an often-overlooked organ called the thymus. This small gland is known to play a key role in human health, essentially training the body to maintain its natural balance between under- and over-active immune responses, i.e., immunodeficiency and autoimmune disease. Yet many crucial questions remain around how this works for each person and for how long.
“Our research will investigate how factors like genetics, age, and sex influence thymus function,” Meyer explains. “I’d like to thank the Rita Allen Foundation for their tremendous vote of confidence. It’s an honor to see my name alongside scientists who have made major impacts on immunology and medicine. The foundation’s support will help my lab do the kind of bold research it takes to achieve such great results.”
Since 1976, the Rita Allen Foundation has invested in more than 200 biomedical scientists at the early stages of their careers. Scholars have gone on to make fundamental contributions to their fields, from gene therapies to new cancer treatments.