Our congratulations to Ludwig Princeton’s Michael Skinnider, who in April became one of 15 exceptional early-career scientists to be named Searle Scholars of the Class of 2025. The Searle Scholars Program emphasizes support for notable young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry who have recently been appointed as assistant professors on a tenure-track appointment and intend to pursue a career in academic research. Each Searle Scholar receives $300,000 in flexible funding over three years to support their research. This year, the Program—which favors high-risk, high-reward research across multiple scientific disciplines—considered applications from 194 nominees put forward by 145 universities and research institutions. Michael, whose proposal was titled, “Charting the unknown human metabolome with biochemical artificial intelligence,” will apply his award to identify the many unidentified small molecule metabolites within the human body. Illuminating this so-called “dark matter” of the metabolome will clear a path to establishing the physiological origins, fates and roles of its constituent molecules and likely contribute to improving the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer and many other diseases.
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