Whitney Henry and Harikesh Wong have been honored as 2026 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. The Pew Charitable Trusts revealed the 21-member cohort of early-career researchers, including the two MIT academics and two alumni, on June 16. Each recipient will obtain four years of funding to advance innovative research on human health and disease. Xin Gu PhD ’22 from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Christina Tringides ’15 from Rice University were also chosen as scholars.
Henry, the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Career Development Professor of Life Sciences and a faculty member at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, will utilize the Pew scholarship to study the role of ferroptosis, a stress-induced cell death program, in liver injury and regeneration. Wong, an assistant professor of biology at MIT and a core member at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard, will explore how immune cell groups make joint decisions on whether to tolerate or attack specific targets.
Henry’s research focuses on ferroptosis, an iron-dependent type of regulated cell death, and its impact on cell fate and tissue remodeling. Her lab examines why certain cells endure stress while others succumb to ferroptosis, emphasizing the molecular, metabolic, and tissue-level signals influencing ferroptosis vulnerability. The research employs chemical biology, metabolomics, functional genomics, and in vivo models. Henry’s team aims to discover new therapies targeting highly metastatic and treatment-resistant cancer cells and to enhance understanding of diseases where ferroptosis leads to tissue damage, fibrosis, or impaired repair.
Wong studies how cellular groups form networks that collectively process information and manage immune responses within tissues. These networks must balance protecting the body from pathogens and tumors with maintaining healthy tissue function. His lab uses immunology techniques alongside high-resolution fluorescence microscopy, computational modeling, and gene manipulation to map, model, and influence the cell-cell interactions driving these decisions, revealing how subtle changes in multicellular organization and communication can direct immune responses toward pathogen clearance and tolerance or toward autoimmunity, chronic inflammation, and cancer.
Pew scholars are selected from candidates nominated by top academic institutions across the U.S. This year’s group of 21 was chosen from 211 nominees. The new scholars join a legacy of over 1,000 scientists supported by the program since 1985. As scholars, they will meet annually with other Pew-funded scientists to foster connections across diverse fields. “Scientific discovery is moving at a rapid pace, and now more than ever we need curious and creative researchers leading the charge,” says Lee Niswander, a 1995 Pew scholar and chair of the program’s national advisory committee. “These new biomedical scholars are prepared to meet that challenge, and I look forward to watching their research unfold.”
Original Source: news.mit.edu
