Ryan Emenecker, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has won the 2022 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. The $50,000 prize recognizes excellence and creativity in young biomedical scientists who have potential to make scientific breakthroughs.
Emenecker studies intrinsically disordered proteins — shape-shifting proteins with no defined structure — in the laboratory of Alex Holehouse, PhD, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics. Mutations in intrinsically disordered proteins have been linked to aging, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and many other conditions.