Four Rutgers Researchers Named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
They are among 471 scientists, engineers and innovators recognized for their achievements
Rutgers faculty elected to the newest class of fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) are addressing some of the most pressing health challenges of our time while deepening our understanding of the human body.
They have worked to improve the treatment of cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s; deciphered genetic codes; made strides to treat conditions that affect the heart and lungs; and transformed scientific understanding of the microbiome – a critical player in human biology.
This year’s class includes top administrators at Rutgers and two of the university’s most accomplished scientists. Their work demonstrates the breadth of ongoing research at the university that is changing the world and making a difference in people’s lives.
“We take enormous pride in the four Rutgers faculty members whose achievements as scholars and researchers have been recognized by their peers in such a meaningful way,” Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said. “Their induction into the American Association for the Advancement of Science amplifies the importance of their work to create new scientific knowledge and to improve human health and well-being.”
Rutgers' AAAS fellows are among 471 scientists, engineers and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines ranging from research, teaching and technology to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.
AAAS, the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its Science family of journals, announced the newest members of the class of fellows on March 27. It is among the most distinctive honors within the scientific community.
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello
Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
For distinguished contributions to knowledge about the human microbiome and urbanization, especially perinatal stressors and infant microbiome restoration
Microbiologist Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello has devoted her scientific career to making discoveries about a world invisible to the human eye.
She has investigated the realm of microscopic organisms, microbes that live in and on the human body. Trillions of microbes – bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites – constitute the microbiome, which shapes human health.
Findings in recent years – including pivotal work by Dominguez-Bello – have transformed scientific understanding of the microbiome. What once was thought of as a mere collection of microbes is now viewed as a critical player in the biology of the human body, she said.
Dominguez-Bello’s work has shed light on the microbiome’s development and function, and the impact of modern practices on microbial communities. The microbiome’s direct impact on human health drives her to learn more.
“The microbiome plays a crucial role in digestion, immunity and even mental health,” Dominguez-Bello said. “However, industrialization has altered microbial communities, which may contribute to rising rates of allergies, metabolic disorders and autoimmune diseases. By studying these changes, we can develop strategies to prevent health problems and safeguard microbial diversity before it is permanently lost.”
A sampling of Dominguez-Bello’s major projects highlights her wide interests. She has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the human digestive microbiome across different ages and geographic locations and detailed its diversity and complexity. She has demonstrated how different modes of childbirth – vaginal birth and caesarean section – affect the initial microbiota in newborns with implications for long-term health. And she is helping to lead the Microbiota Vault, a global effort to preserve beneficial microbes for future generations.
There is so much more to learn and do, she said.
“I have so many questions I’d like to answer,” Dominguez-Bello said. “How and when should we restore the microbiome to prevent disease? How can we protect people transitioning from traditional to urban lifestyles from acquiring the disease risks common in industrialized societies? How can we build a high-tech society that respects and remains in harmony with nature?”
– Kitta MacPherson
Andrew Gow
Professor, Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Faculty Member, Rutgers Environmental and Health Sciences Institute
For distinguished contributions to the field of the chemical biology of reactive nitrogen species, particularly the elucidation of physiological and pathophysiological effects in lung disease
Andrew Gow is on a mission to help people who are struggling to breathe: premature babies with chronic lung disease, veterans exposed to burn pits, survivors of 9/11 and those who cleaned ground zero in New York and inhaled toxic dust.
For nearly three decades, the professor of pharmacology and toxicology has been investigating the role of nitric oxide in cardiopulmonary diseases such as emphysema, acute lung injury, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sickle cell disease and diabetes.
Nitric oxide – a crucial signaling molecule involved in various physiological processes, including cardiovascular function, immune response and neuronal signaling – is a mediator of the disease process in conditions as diverse as Alzheimer’s disease to persistent pulmonary hypertension in premature newborns. The molecule helps regulate more than 15,000 different proteins whose functions range from regulating hemoglobin and respiration to cytokines that regulate immune responses and inflammation.
“Once we understand the mechanics of nitric oxide, we can understand how to correct the signaling when it goes wrong and design appropriate therapies for diseases in which nitric oxide metabolism is disrupted,” said Gow, who is investigating ways to use messenger RNA to improve nitric oxide signaling for conditions such as acute lung injury.
“Understanding why you form one protein in the right place and why you form another one in the wrong place is key to getting to the next level of developing better therapeutics,” said Gow, adding there is still more to discover. “I think of knowledge as an ever-expanding onion: You take one layer off and it reveals more questions.”
– Patti Zielinski
Prabhas V. Moghe
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Chief Academic Officer
Distinguished Professor
For globally cited research on innovative nanotechnologies for cancer surveillance and cardiovascular and brain health
For decades as a researcher, Prabhas Moghe thrived at the intersection of academic disciplines.
“I’ve always been very interested in the confluence of biology and the synthetic world,” Moghe said. “As an engineer, you’re designing devices or structures and usually they’re static. Biology needs you to create things that are agile, nimble and pliable. Biology is dynamic. I love the combination of the predictable and deterministic with a sense of complexity and suspense that biology brings.”
He has brought that duality to his research. Since coming to Rutgers in 1995, Moghe worked to find better ways to illuminate and decode cells to understand how stem cells adopt their final form or guide how diseased cells (like cancer) can be removed from the body while also engineering platforms for healthy cells to inject into the body.
Moghe’s team took on the challenge that surgeons operating on cancers often operate “in the blind,” using touch but without a clear view. This can make all the difference for the patients, who may have to undergo multiple operations to be rid of residual cancer. He and his team designed new probes to light up the cancer cells using a new window of light, allowing doctors to visualize the clusters and extract them more easily.
The Moghe team is also actively researching new paradigms that could hold promise for stabilizing patients with neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. “When the neurons start to die, you’ve lost their functions irreversibly and you are also rapidly losing your cognitive capacity, your memory,” he said. “So, our project is taking a novel assembly of molecules to tamp down inflammation to the neurons, the brain’s main cells, to preserve and restore them. In preclinical settings, these assemblies can make quite a difference, by simultaneously inactivating a number of triggers.”
In 2020, Moghe was appointed executive vice president for academic affairs, reporting to the university president. He brings his belief in the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinary scholarship for students, faculty and academic units. One example of his legacy is the Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA) at Rutgers-New Brunswick, allowing undergraduate students to use design thinking to take on grand challenges in their academic career. Additionally, the Hatchery Innovation Studio, built in the basement of Alexander Library, gives students the space to create and work on projects and practice pitches. Today, the universitywide ROADMAPS initiative launched by Moghe is helping chancellors, deans and faculty break down silos across schools at all Rutgers locations and offer newly imagined programs and institutes.
“Sometimes there are multiple paths to solving a problem, and we gravitate toward one particular path, but I think about scaling and about how to stitch a collection of paths so multiple solutions can be addressed.”
For someone who is widely identified with honoring other faculty at Rutgers, Moghe has been recognized numerous times both as a teacher and scholar, but he said he finds the induction into the AAAS especially meaningful.
“By discipline, I’m not a scientist, per se,” Moghe said. "It’s a high honor for me as an engineer to be acknowledged by the largest society of scientists that ‘you’re celebrated as one of our own.’”
– Roya Rafei
Michael E. Zwick
Senior Vice President for Research
Office for Research
For distinguished scientific contributions to the discovery of the causes of rare and common diseases, outstanding research leadership at major research-intensive universities, and passionate commitment to research development
Imagine a day when doctors can edit the DNA of unborn babies and erase life-altering genetic disorders such as diabetes, autism, schizophrenia, and more.
When that day comes, it will be thanks in part to decades of ground-breaking genetic research by Michael E. Zwick.
Almost every human trait – including many pediatric disorders – is tied to genetic code. Zwick’s research deciphering these genetic codes resulted in one of the first published papers describing a method for pinpointing specific parts of a human genome.
“It speeds the ability to find rare disease-causing mutations,” he said of research he conducted with Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Human Genetics. “We use genetics to understand the mechanism that leads to disorders. The next step is identifying interventions that could improve patients' lives.”
After achieving incredible success as an individual researcher, Zwick said he was drawn to directing Rutgers Office for Research, a universitywide operation working with all chancellor-led units, because it allows him to support the research, scholarship, and creative endeavors of all faculty at Rutgers and hundreds of Big Ten-caliber researchers working on potentially life-changing discoveries and innovations.
“We have researchers unraveling the mysteries of cells. We have scientists and plant breeders developing disease-resistant plants to ensure a stable food supply. We are working with everything from life and physical sciences to complex social behavioral sciences,” he said. “Rutgers faculty are world-class researchers, and we are supporting all of them.”
Guided by his own experiences with red tape as a researcher, Zwick has transformed the Rutgers Office for Research operations in his four-year tenure. Zwick’s operational success is founded on creating highly functional teams, improving tools and services to faculty, staff, and students, streamlining research enterprise applications, assisting corporations and the government in finding experts at Rutgers, and implementing AI to enhance processes. “Research is a highly government-regulated and complex process. What I’ve sought to do is to remove that complexity from faculty and students and allow them to spend more of their time doing what they love, which is pursuing our research,” he said. “A strong research and innovation system advances American interests and drives innovation at Rutgers.”
In addition to Zwick’s individual genetic research and commitment to advancing research on a larger scale at Rutgers, he also dedicated more than 20 years to the U.S. Navy, where he served as a commander and deployed biodefense technology. That unique combination of experiences factored into his AAAS nomination.
“It’s an honor. I’m thrilled to be recognized as an AAAS fellow,” said Zwick. “I feel strongly about advancing Americans’ interests through research and innovation, and I’m in a fantastic role to do that.”
– Lisa Intrabartola
