The Rainwater Charitable Foundation, one of the largest independent funders of neurodegenerative research that enables field-advancing programs, resources, and breakthrough discoveries for primary tauopathies, today announced the 2025 Rainwater Prize recipients. This prize recognizes scientific achievements in the field of neurodegenerative research and offers progress toward new treatments for diseases associated with the accumulation of tau protein in the brain. Kaj Blennow, M.D., Ph.D., University of Gothenburg, will be awarded the 2025 Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Research Prize of $400,000, and Bess Frost, Ph.D., Brown University, will be awarded the 2025 Rainwater Prize for Innovative Early-Career Scientist of $200,000.

In January, RNA experts from around the world gathered at Brown to roll up their sleeves and get to work on a venture that many of them say will likely be bigger, more expensive, and more daunting than the Human Genome Project.

But the outcome of this effort, known as the Human RNome Project, will also be even more consequential for human health, offering clues to develop vaccines, unlock mysteries behind rare diseases, and discover treatments for some of humanity’s most intractable illnesses, like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and many cancers.

An aspiring physician-scientist pursuing research in molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry at Brown, Pablito is simultaneously strengthening support for fellow Indigenous students through mentorship and engagement across campus, including the launch of a new American Indian Science and Engineering Society chapter.

Ramisa Fariha Sc.M. ’20, Ph.D. ’24, has been named to the 2024 STAT Wunderkind list. Fariha was selected from hundreds of nominations for her innovative research, as STAT News celebrates early-career researchers who are not yet independent scientists or program leaders.

Bess Frost has been appointed the Salame-Feraud Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, a joint center between Brown University’s Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science and the Division of Biology and Medicine.

Congratulation to Kenneth R. Miller, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University, on winning Sigma Xi's 2023 John P. McGovern Science and Society Award.

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award, sponsored by Wiley, recognizes a scientist in the first 8 years of an independent career who has made an important contribution to the study of proteins. 

Walter Atwood, PhD, Vice Chair of MCB is elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers, who nominate fellows for election by the AAAS Council, the association’s policymaking body. Professor Atwood is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. The AAAS recognized Atwood "for distinguished contributions to molecular virology, particularly for making seminal discoveries regarding the processes by which polyomaviruses infect cells and cause human disease."