Emily Troemel named 2013 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator

June 19, 2013

By Kim McDonald

Emily Troemel

Emily Troemel, an associate professor of cell and developmental biology, has been named a 2013 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator. Troemel is one of 10 scientists honored this year as Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease and is the first recipient ever to receive the award from UC San Diego. The five-year $500,000 award provides support to early career researchers conducting innovative investigation in infectious disease.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is a private, independent foundation located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, dedicated to advancing the biomedical sciences by supporting research and other educational endeavors. The Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease program was launched in 2002 and provides opportunities for early career faculty to bring multidisciplinary approaches to the study of human infectious diseases. "Research to understand the critical interactions of hosts and pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes is difficult and risky-you have to get at least two organisms' systems under control," said BWF President Dr. John Burris. "We are pleased to provide funding to creative researchers to gain critical insight and data."

Troemel received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, then spent a year in Japan before receiving her Ph.D. in cell biology at UC San Francisco. She worked for a start-up biotech company in the San Francisco Bay area before returning to academe to do a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital, then joined the UC San Diego faculty in 2008.