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Way Named an HHMI Faculty Scholar, receives NIH Pioneer Award

Sing Sing Way, MD, PhD

Groundbreaking research into how the immune system works in early newborn development has led to Sing Sing Way, MD, PhD, being named a Faculty Scholar by The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Simons Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Way, an investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases, studies how genetically foreign maternal and fetal tissues coexist during pregnancy. Understanding how the immune system works in unique developmental contexts could lead to new therapies for improving pregnancy. Way is one of 84 Faculty Scholars selected from 43 institutions.

Way also is one of 12 recipients of the 2016 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, which supports scientists of exceptional creativity who propose transforming research approaches to major biomedical challenges.

As part of this honor, Way will use a five-year, $5.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases, to study how immunological identity is redefined by genetically foreign microchimeric cells.