Three Scripps Research scientists have been named Prebys Research Heroes: associate chemistry professor Mia Huang, PhD; assistant neuroscience professor Xin Jin, PhD; and neuroscience professor Lisa Stowers, PhD.

The Prebys Research Heroes Program, launched this year by the Prebys Foundation, is a $7 million initiative designed to bring more diverse perspectives into the laboratory and yield groundbreaking medical research. This program was established to address the critical gap in women and underrepresented groups in leading research positions by offering substantial funding to researchers for projects that might otherwise go unsupported.

“Eighty percent of postdocs are women, but only 20 percent receive funding to run their own projects. This shows us that the path to leadership in medical research is fraught with barriers. Our program is designed to address that problem by empowering 14 brilliant researchers with the means to pursue cutting-edge research that promises to tackle some of the most challenging diseases facing our world today,” says Grant Oliphant, CEO of the Prebys Foundation.

Each Prebys Research Hero will receive a two-year grant totaling $500,000. Huang, Jin and Stowers are among 11 other award recipients across San Diego, who all demonstrate exceptional promise in areas critical to advancing medical science:

• Huang is focusing on on pregnancy health risks like preeclampsia – a common yet poorly understood pregnancy disorder – seeking markers that could predict complications long before they occur.
• Jin is working on approaches to understanding the cellular underpinnings and fundamental principles of brain development, which will allow us to understand how diseases like autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, among others, progress.
• Stowers is focusing on learning more about how the brain works in order to develop medications and therapies to treat a wide variety of brain-related disorders, from depression to dementia, and more.

Learn more about the Prebys Research Heroes program.