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The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced today that four scientists from the ӳý are among the 27 “top biomedical researchers” in the nation who will become HHMI investigators this fall. Selected for their scientific excellence, all of the investigators will receive flexible, financial support over the next five years so that they may move their research forward in creative and new directions. The ӳý’s Aviv Regev, Vamsi Mootha, Peter Reddien, and David Reich are among the new group of HHMI investigators.

To convert food into energy, our bodies rely on a complex network of molecular pathways known broadly as metabolism. Along the path from food to energy, intermediate molecules emerge that form the starting materials for the next step. Traditionally, these intermediates were viewed simply as building blocks — essential for the process, but otherwise inert.

The revealed the vast numbers and types of microbes that live on and in the human body. While this thought may be unpleasant, humans can have larger, more gruesome passengers hitching a ride, such as the several-centimeter-long nematode Loa loa, which infects millions of people in Western and Central Africa.