David Pagliarini, PhD, the Hugo F. & Ina C. Urbauer Professor and a BJC Investigator in the Department of Cell Biology & Physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator. HHMI will be supporting Pagliarini’s research on mitochondria, organelles embedded within cells that produce much of the body’s energy, and his effort to shed light on the underlying genetic causes of mitochondrial disorders. These conditions affect one in 5,000 people and can impair growth, muscle strength, vision and other body functions.
HHMI grants investigator awards to accomplished scientists who are pursuing ideas with the potential to answer fundamental questions about biology. The program is intended to support “people, not projects,” and to provide scientists the time, funding and freedom they need to follow their science where it leads. In Pagliarini’s case, it will allow him to add technical capacity to scale up and expand the breadth of his research into mitochondrial proteins and their functions.
As an HHMI Investigator, Pagliarini will receive approximately $11 million in HHMI funding over a seven-year term, which can be renewed after scientific review. Pagliarini is one of 26 scientists in the 2024 cohort of new investigators, of nearly 1,000 that applied.