Biochemist Vignesh Kasinath will receive four years of funding ‘to uncover fundamental insights about human health and disease’

Vignesh Kasinath, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of biochemistry, has been named a 2025 Pew Biomedical Scholar.

Kasinath is among a cohort of 22 early-career scholars who will receive four years of funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts “to uncover fundamental insights about human health and disease.”

“For 40 years, Pew has supported young, talented researchers as they take creative approaches to solving big scientific questions,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Pew’s senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement. “This new class continues that legacy, and we look forward to seeing where their discoveries lead.”

 

Vignesh Kasinath, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of biochemistry, has been named a 2025 Pew Biomedical Scholar.

The members of the 2025 cohort are all early-career, junior faculty and are the 40th group of Pew scholars to be awarded funding since the program’s founding in 1985.

“Pew-funded scientists have long contributed to biomedical research discoveries that have improved human health,” said Lee Niswander, a 1995 Pew scholar and chair of the program’s national advisory committee. “I’m confident this new class of scholars, with their innovative and creative approaches to scientific research, will continue this tradition.”

Kasinath’s research explores how cells “silence” transposons, which are genetic elements whose movement within the genome can disrupt the function of genes. The human genome, he notes, is riddled with transposons, DNA sequences that promote genetic instability by replicating and integrating into additional chromosomal locations.

To maintain genomic integrity, cells have surveillance systems that distinguish between transposons and normal genes and epigenetically silence the transposons to prevent their replication. “Recently, my group has found that one such system, human silencing hub (HUSH), interacts with specific RNA-binding proteins that have known roles in combating retroviral integrations in the human genome,” he says.

“Now, using cutting-edge techniques in cryo-electron microscopy, biochemistry and RNA-protein interaction mapping, we will determine how RNA-binding proteins aid HUSH in the recognition of transcriptionally active transposons, how HUSH interacts with chromatin and RNA to silence these elements and how mutations in HUSH perturb these interactions.”

Given that HUSH functions as an RNA-mediated gene silencer, Kasinath adds, his work could lead to novel therapeutic strategies for treating cancers and other human diseases associated with transposon invasion, by epigenetically silencing such translocations that often result in gene fusions through with cancer can manifest.

“I am thrilled to be part of the Pew!" Kasinath says. "I have interacted with many Pew scholars who have been incredibly supportive and generous with their time. This Pew award affirms my lab’s commitment to the exciting problems we are pursuing.”

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