Awarded in 2026
Home Department: Developmental Biology
Faculty Advisors: Kyle Loh (Developmental Biology), Jesse Engreitz (Genetics), and Alex Dunn (Chemical Engineering)

Research Title: Leveraging Genomic Screens to Reveal How a Mechanosensitive Signaling Pathway Controls Endothelial Fate

Discovering the genes driving stem cell differentiation is a longstanding goal of developmental biology. The Loh lab developed a new genomic screening technique and applied it to an endothelial cell differentiation model, revealing that a mechanosignaling pathway has a novel role in endothelial fate. Hunter aims to further elucidate this mechanism and leverage it to improve in vitro differentiation methods.