(Press-News.org) LOS ANGELES—Michelson Medical Research Foundation (MMRF) is proud to announce the eighth cohort of recipients of its 2026 Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants, naming five early-career scientists whose research is advancing the future of human immunology.
The program is supporting its largest cohort to date, awarding five early-career scientists $150,000 each to accelerate innovative work in immunology, vaccine discovery, and immunotherapy.
The 2026 awardees are: Benjamin Morehouse, Ph.D. (University of California, Irvine); Theodore Roth, MD, Ph.D. (Stanford University); Inta Gribonika, Ph.D. (Lund University); Joshua Gray, Ph.D. (Columbia University); and Mohamad Abedi, Ph.D. (University of Washington).
This expanded cohort reflects a surge in exceptional applications, driven in part by sustained cuts and uncertainty around federal funding for scientific research. As early-career researchers face these mounting constraints, MMRF is increasing its investment in high-risk, high-impact science with the potential to transform global health.
“Supporting the next generation of immunology pioneers is more critical than ever,” said Dr. Gary K. Michelson, founder and co-chair of Michelson Medical Research Foundation. “Early-career scientists are facing unprecedented constraints in federal funding, yet they continue to propose bold, imaginative science. We are proud to help elevate these visions and ensure that catalytic ideas receive the support they need to flourish.”
2026 Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grant Recipients
Benjamin Morehouse, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
Project: Deciphering the Function of an Orphan Enzyme in the Innate Immune System
Morehouse investigates conserved immune mechanisms spanning bacteria to humans. His team identified a previously unknown human enzyme linked to bacterial immune signaling that plays a central role in inflammatory responses to infection. The gene may represent an overlooked therapeutic target for autoimmune disorders and systemic inflammation.
Theodore Roth, MD, Ph.D., Stanford University
Project: Non-Evolved Human Immune Cell States for Next-Generation Immunotherapies
Roth proposes a combinatorial genetic engineering strategy to generate new immune cell states not found in nature, enabling the creation of novel immunotherapies, especially for cancer, by expanding the functional repertoire of human immune cells.
Inta Gribonika, Ph.D., Lund University
Project: Unravelling Cutaneous Humoral Immunity for Topical Barrier Immunization
Gribonika’s work reveals how common skin commensal Staphylococcus epidermidis promotes cutaneous humoral responses. Her research decodes host-microbiota interactions to develop targeted topical biotherapeutics and novel vaccination strategies that harness skin immunity.
Joshua Gray, Ph.D., Columbia University
Project: Tissue-Adapted CD4 T Cells Orchestrate Mucosal B Cell Immunity in Infancy
Gray aims to define how localized interactions between CD4⁺ T cells and B cells shape antibody responses in infants using spatial transcriptomics and organoid models. This work could inform vaccine design that elicits robust mucosal immunity from birth.
Mohamad Abedi, Ph.D., University of Washington
Project: De Novo Designed Cytokines for Context-Specific Immune Modulation
Abedi will employ computational protein design to create cytokines that activate only in specific environments, such as the tumor microenvironment, enabling precise immune modulation with reduced off-target effects—a major advance for cancer immunotherapy and treatments for autoimmune diseases.
Selected by a distinguished committee of internationally recognized scientists, the 2026 cohort represents a new generation of leaders in immunology and vaccine research. Collectively, their work reflects bold innovation and strong potential to advance vaccines, immunotherapies, and our understanding of how the human immune system responds to disease.
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About Michelson Medical Research Foundation: Founded by Dr. Gary K. Michelson in 1995, Michelson Medical Research Foundation accelerates solutions to global health challenges by fostering high-risk, high-reward approaches that disrupt the status quo to make innovative ideas a reality. Through convergent collaboration among engineers, scientists, and physicians, the foundation helps rapidly move bold concepts and technologies from the laboratory into clinics and communities around the world. Michelson Medical Research Foundation is a division of Michelson Philanthropies. For more information, visit: www.michelsonmedicalresearch.org
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WASHINGTON — The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has selected 10 members from a highly competitive applicant pool to participate in the Society’s Early Career Policy Ambassador (ECPA) Program. The 10 ECPAs, representing many career stages and geographic locations, were chosen for their dedication to advocating for the scientific community, their desire to learn more about effective means of advocacy, and their experience as leaders in their labs and community.
The ambassadors are:
Alison Bashford, Drexel University College of Medicine
Amelia Cuarenta, PhD, University of Michigan
Daniel Leman, PhD, Brandeis University
Deja Monet, ...
Embargoed for release: Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, 11:00 AM ET
Key points:
Broad spiritual practices, ranging from attending religious services to meditation to prayer, were associated with a 13% reduced risk of hazardous drug and alcohol use, according to a meta-analysis. The greatest reduction (18%) was seen among individuals attending religious services at least once per week.
The meta-analysis is the first of its kind to synthesize and comprehensively estimate how dangerous substance use is impacted over time by spirituality.
According to the researchers, the findings carry potential for individuals who find spirituality ...
A novel vaccination approach developed by Vanderbilt Health researchers cleared the harmful gut bacterium Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) in an animal model of infection.
An experimental vaccine administered to the mucosal lining of the colon protected against illness, death, tissue damage and infection recurrence. The findings, reported Feb. 18 in the journal Nature, represent a major step forward for vaccine development for C. diff, the leading cause of health care- and antibiotic-associated infection.
C. ...
Bellaterra (Barcelona), February 18, 2026 - Plants don’t just respond to light and water, they also run on an internal daily timekeeper known as the circadian clock. Researchers have now discovered that the plant circadian clock can regulate electrochemical signals in specific cells that help determine whether growth is invested above ground or below ground.
In a study led by Paloma Mas, CSIC Research Professor at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), and published in the leading scientific journal ...
Genetic ancestry may play a key role in how acral melanoma, a rare and aggressive type of skin cancer, develops and behaves, with important implications for diagnosis and treatment, new research shows.
Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and their collaborators analysed the genetic makeup of over 100 acral melanoma tumours from Mexican patients to understand how this cancer develops, including studying how ancestry influences tumour biology. They uncovered that acral melanoma varies, with three groups ...
New research has identified optimal design for artificial habitats to support restoration of oyster reefs, based on a detailed understanding of natural oyster reef geometry.
Published in the global journal Nature, the Sydney-based study shows the complex shapes of natural oyster reefs are not random – their structure and arrangement optimise the establishment and survival of developing oysters and their protection from predators.
Oysters are really “ecosystem engineers”, building their own reefs made up of living oysters and the discarded shells of previous generations, explains lead author of the study, Dr Juan Esquivel-Muelbert ...
About The Study: In this cohort study, both prenatal depression and gestational diabetes were associated with childhood obesity risk, with larger effect sizes observed for gestational diabetes. Children exposed to both conditions had the greatest risk, although associations appeared additive rather than synergistic. These findings underscore the need for universal prenatal screening and risk stratification, along with targeted interventions for children exposed to these conditions.
Corresponding Author: To ...
About The Study: This meta-analysis synthesized data from 55 published longitudinal studies on spirituality and harmful or hazardous alcohol and other drug use risk and documented a significant protective association. The results of this study have implications for clinicians and communities regarding future strategies for alcohol and other drug use prevention and recovery.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, email hkoh@hsph.harvard.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.4816)
Editor’s ...
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In the race to lighter, safer and more efficient electronics — from electric vehicles to transcontinental energy grids — one component literally holds the power: the polymer capacitor. Seen in such applications as medical defibrillators, polymer capacitors are responsible for quick bursts of energy and stabilizing power rather than holding large amounts of energy, as opposed to the slower, steadier energy of a battery. However, current state-of-the-art polymer capacitors cannot survive beyond 212 degrees Fahrenheit (F), which the air around a typical car engine can hit during summer months ...
The brain’s ability to do everything from forming memories to coordinating movement relies on its cells producing the right proteins at the right time. But directly measuring this protein production, known as translation, across different types of brain cells has been a challenge.
Now, scientists at University of California School of Medicine, Scripps Research and their colleagues have developed a technology that reveals which proteins are generated by individual brain cells. The team used their method — called Ribo-STAMP — to create the first maps of protein production across ...
