Gladstone Postdoc Receives Support from The Pew Charitable Trusts

The Pew Charitable Trusts announced the 2020 class members of the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences, which include Gustavo Vasen, PhD, postdoctoral scholar in Leor Weinberger’s lab at Gladstone Institutes.

The 10 postdoctoral fellows from seven Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru—will receive 2 years of funding to conduct research in labs across the United States, where they will work under the mentorship of prominent biomedical scientists.

“The pursuit of scientific discovery calls for diverse perspectives from around the world,” said Rebecca W. Rimel, Pew’s president and CEO, in a news release. “Pew is thrilled to welcome these promising Latin American fellows to our global network of researchers as they explore new frontiers in biomedical science.”

With this funding, Vasen will investigate how transcriptional “noise” allows the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to hide quietly inside host cells, emerging when conditions are most favorable.

“The Pew is a high-visibility award with a very competitive selection process; Gustavo’s selection is wonderful news,” says Weinberger, PhD, Gladstone senior investigator, William and Ute Bowes Distinguished Professor, and 2008 Pew Biomedical Scholar. “Gustavo embodies the passion, creativity, and curiosity that defines the Pew program and is the basis for a successful scientific career. Based on his accomplishments thus far, I expect great things from him.”

Fellows who choose to return to Latin America to launch their own research labs will receive additional funding from Pew. Approximately 70 percent of participants have pursued this path to contribute to the development of a more robust biomedical research community in Latin America.

In addition to Vasen, The Pew Charitable Trusts has supported three other Gladstone investigators under the prestigious Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, including Anatol Kreitzer (2008), Leor Weinberger (2008), and most recently Seth Shipman (2020).

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts