Month: July 2025

In Jake Brunkard’s lab in the Genetics-Biotechnology Center, you’ll find plants everywhere. The space is filled with grow carts containing tomatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana, a member of the mustard family that Brunkard calls “the lab rat” of the plant genetics world. You’ll also see Nicotiana benthamiana, a tough survivor of the Australian Outback, where it flourishes in rocky …

In the same way that sheet music shows musicians what to play, DNA shows the body how to function. But what if a violinist’s pages got jumbled out of order, or the melodies marked mute? The instructions would still be there, but they wouldn’t make sense to the player.

Eleven faculty have been honored with Kellett Mid-Career Awards to support those promoted to tenured positions seven to 20 years ago and who have made key research contributions in their fields. The award, named for the late William R. Kellett, a former president of the WARF board of trustees and president of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, provides …

Eleven faculty have been honored with the H.I. Romnes Fellowships to recognize faculty with exceptional research contributions within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position. The award is named in recognition of the late WARF trustees president H.I. Romnes and comes with $60,000 that may be spent over five years.  

Ten faculty have been awarded WARF Named Professorships, which come with $100,000 and honor faculty who have made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge, primarily through their research endeavors, but also because of their teaching and service activities. Award recipients choose the names associated with their professorships.  

Paul Lambert, who leads UW’s McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, says UW’s NIH-funded research on tumor viruses, which cause about 15% of all human cancers, has deepened understanding of cancer biology and directly led to preventive strategies — like vaccines and potential therapies — that save lives.