Listen to an interview with Nels Elde..
香蕉视频 of Utah Health evolutionary geneticist , has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as a 鈥済enius grant.鈥 The highly-regarded honor goes to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.
Elde is in 2020 who come from a variety of fields, each receiving $625,000 in stipends with no strings attached. The fellowship is considered an investment in a recipient鈥檚 potential to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society. Elde says he may invest funds into a storytelling project highlighting the ingenuity and humanity of science heroes.
鈥淒r. Elde has achieved a hallmark in the scientific community. His innate ability to think creatively about unsolved problems inspires all of us to do the same in our quests to advance knowledge. 香蕉视频 of Utah Health is extremely proud of him and his accomplishment, which is representative of our faculty鈥檚 desire to improve the world,鈥 says Michael L. Good, M.D., Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of U of U Health.
Elde learned about the award in a phone call arranged under the pretenses that he would comment on another candidate who was up for the fellowship. Instead, the caller revealed that Elde had been awarded the honor. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 have been more surprised,鈥 Elde says. 鈥淚 am overwhelmed and happy, humbled and honored.鈥
In 2011, Elde joined the U of U as an assistant professor. Since then, his laboratory has studied the ultimate experimentalist: evolution. Their investigations stem from the fact that an organism鈥檚 genome鈥攖he complete set of genetic instructions鈥攂ears evolutionary changes that have occurred over millennia. Viruses drive many of these changes as animals evolve new ways to survive microbial infections. Studying how these virus-animal conflicts have changed biology is providing insights into how the body鈥檚 defenses, including the immune system, are built and how they work.
"It's not fair to call him 'out of the box' because he's so far beyond that."
Elde is taking this line of research a step further by comparing how animals that reside on far-off branches of the family tree defend themselves against viral infections. Learning why some succeed while others fail could ultimately inform new kinds of interventions to prevent, or treat, viral infections that are harmful to humans.
鈥淲e鈥檙e figuring out how to squeeze biological meaning out of genome-scale data,鈥 Elde says. 鈥淪omeday we may get to a point where we can look in the genetic medicine cabinet and select genes off the shelf that will short circuit a virus."
An Inspired Life
As Elde talks about his research, he seamlessly shifts from one topic to another: growing tomatoes, about evolution, raising pets, hiking in the foothills with colleagues, a chance meeting with a local celebrity chef. In the course of conversation, you get the sense that the many facets of his life are part of an inseparable continuum, with each experience enriching the other.
That鈥檚 one of the things that makes Elde stand out, says his postdoc mentor, Harmit Malik, Ph.D., a professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He has a gift for making connections that seldom few can. 鈥淎n entire roomful of people will be listening to the same scientific talk and he has the insight to ask the one question that no one else is asking but that everyone should be asking,鈥 Malik says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not fair to call him 鈥榦utside the box鈥 because he is so far beyond that.鈥
Elde credits his inquisitive nature to his Minnesota upbringing in a family of artists, scientists and ministers. Growing up in a little-known Swedish church, he spent countless hours eavesdropping on theological discussions and philosophical meanderings. From his mom and sister, he learned the joy of artistic expression, which he infuses into his descriptions of science. 鈥淟istening to him, one might be tempted to think you were in a midst of an exciting novel you cannot put down,鈥 comments Malik. And from Elde鈥檚 dad, a neuroscientist, he inherited an incessant curiosity of the unknown.
These foundations have served him well. Elde has earned numerous honors, including being named a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator, Kavli Foundation Fellow and the Mario R. Capecchi Endowed Chair in Genetics from 2011-2017. Research from his lab has been highlighted by the , , , and .
While he is proud of his achievements, Elde says his finest accomplishment is the success of his trainees. Just as his favorite mentors did for him, he encourages them to see science as an endless playground to explore.
鈥淯tah continues to be a fun place to cultivate creativity,鈥 Elde says. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see what will happen on the scientific adventures ahead.鈥
In addition to Elde, six other 香蕉视频 of Utah faculty have received MacArthur Fellowships. They are developmental biologist Susan Mango, Ph.D. (2008); evolutionary biologist Eric Charnov, Ph.D. (1997); biologist Sharon Emerson, Ph.D. (1995); evolutionary ecologist Jon Seger, Ph.D. (1987); poet and writer Mark Strand, M.A. (1987); and evolutionary biologist Michael Ghiselin, Ph.D. (1981). Elde says he is the 10th native Minnesotan to be awarded the honor.
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