Two UMass Chan Medical School researchers have been named to the renowned Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Freeman Hrabwoski Scholars program.
Jessica Spinelli, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine, and Emma V. Watson, PhD’16, assistant professor of systems biology, are the first UMass Chan faculty members to receive the distinction of being named Freeman Hrabowski Scholars. They are among 30 early career faculty members to receive the award in 2025.
“Being named a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar is probably one of the highlights of my life so far,” Dr. Watson said. “This award is very prestigious. It’s going to completely revolutionize both of our lab’s capabilities. All those experiments we’ve been dreaming about doing, we can do now. It’s very exciting.”
The Freeman Hrabowski Scholars program supports outstanding early career researchers committed to advancing inclusion in science. Scholars are HHMI employees, each appointed for up to two, five-year terms, receiving up to $8.6 million over 10 years, including salary, research budget and equipment.
“Drs. Watson and Spinelli are two of our most gifted scientists. Their success in garnering this award in an extremely competitive environment attests to how truly exceptional they both are,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Elisabeth Chair for the Dean of Medicine, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine.
Both scientists joined the UMass Chan faculty in 2022.
“Emma and I have gone on this journey together,” Spinelli said. “We are close collaborators, and our research programs are extremely complementary. Both of our labs are doing very interdisciplinary work. Emma’s lab is using genomics. My lab does a lot of metabolomics. When we need genomics, we ask Emma for help, and when Emma needs metabolomics, she asks us for help. I feel like we both helped each other get this award.”
“It feels like our collective science is being recognized,” Spinelli added.
Watson said, “Jessica and I have collaborated now on several studies and we’ve been able to unite and work together on some great science. The fact that we are both winning this award at the same time is great for us and for UMass Chan.”
Photo: Bryan Goodchild
The Spinelli lab studies how cells sense and adapt to metabolic stress and focuses on identifying the processes that enable metabolic adaptability in healthy mammals, as well as investigating how these processes break down in conditions such as cancer, obesity, mitochondrial disorders and ischemia.
“We are grateful for the stability of these funds. They are going to allow us to pursue the research that we’re passionate about and explore new areas of biology that we couldn’t get funding for with other mechanisms,” Spinelli said.
“Dr. Spinelli is most deserving of the HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholars award. She is an outstanding scientist doing breakthrough research that is already having a major impact on our understanding of the response to ischemia. The HHMI award will provide stable funding for her work and will significantly increase the resources available to her laboratory,” said Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS, the H. Arthur Smith Chair in Cancer Research and chair and professor of molecular medicine. “I am very pleased to be able to work with her and her colleagues in the Program in Molecular Medicine.”
The Watson lab studies mutations in cancer, specifically large chromosomal gain and loss, which occurs at high frequency in cancers, but are often ignored clinically and experimentally. Her lab is trying to shed light on the darker types of mutations that happen in the genome.
Watson said the program will help her lab employ new technologies to access higher resolution genomic information at the single cell level, as well as perform larger-scale functional genetic assays like CRISPR screens to identify important genes on these large chromosomal regions.
“This award provides a much-needed glimmer of hope during these times of funding uncertainty at the national level,” Watson said.
“The Department of Systems Biology is proud of Emma and excited by her research that applies systems biology techniques and thinking to cancer,” said Marian Walhout, PhD, the Maroun Semaan Chair in Biomedical Research and chair and professor of systems biology.
Watson and Spinelli will start the HHMI program this fall.
In August, both Spinelli and Watson also received significant awards from the National Institutes of Health.
Spinelli was awarded $2.6 million to support her research testing a novel mechanism to restore mitochondrial function and mitigate metabolic disease caused by obesity. Watson received a $2.3 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, an early investigators award for her research addressing critical knowledge gaps in how large chromosomal alterations alter gene expression and cellular phenotypes across cell types and cell states.
The Freeman Hrabowski Scholars program launched in 2022 to support outstanding basic researchers, including physician-scientists, who have strong potential to become leaders in their fields. Scholars prioritize scientific excellence in their own research while creating lab climates in which everyone can thrive. Each scholar participates in professional development to advance their leadership and mentoring skills.
