Providing concrete support for the researchers of tomorrow is the goal of the IBSA Foundation Fellowships. Now in their 13th edition, these prestigious grants – worth €32,000 each – have been awarded to six researchers under the age of 40, drawn from universities and research centres across the globe. The fellowships span five scientific areas that are often underfunded: dermatology, endocrinology, fertility/urology, orthopedics/pain medicine/rheumatology, and healthy aging/regenerative medicine.
Among this year’s recipients is Indranil Singh of the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and the Biology of Adversity Project at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, recognized in the “healthy aging/regenerative medicine” category. Singh’s project, “Psychosocial stress induced viral mimicry as an epigenetic writer of immune aging,” will examine how chronic psychosocial stress triggers antiviral-like immune programs in hematopoietic stem cells and leaves lasting epigenetic changes that resemble immune aging. Singh’s research aims to map these stress-driven trajectories and test whether blocking key “writer” pathways can reverse persistent inflammation and preserve immune regeneration to support a healthy lifespan.
In addition to the six fellowships, IBSA Foundation established a Research Equity Prize, a €5,000 award recognizing the best scientific project developed at a research institution based in a developing country.
