The Carney Institute has named Yu-Wen Alvin Huang as the recipient of the 2024 Carney Institute Junior Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Awards. Established in 2023, these awards recognize junior faculty members for their outstanding research mentorship of undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral scientists, as well as medical students or residents.
Huang is the GLF Translational Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry. He joined the faculty of Biology and Medicine in July 2019. His research focuses on neuron-glial interaction in neurocognitive disorders, such Alzheimer's disease and Angelman syndrome, aided by new modeling tools developed in his laboratory.
Kevin Connolly, a fifth year Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry (MCB) graduate student who was the first Ph.D. student to officially join Huang’s lab, noted that Huang takes a bespoke, customized approach to mentoring. “It is clearly important to produce data, receive grants and publish. However, Alvin knows it is most important to produce an inclusive environment where his students can thrive,” said Connolly.
“He holds regular one on one meetings, project-specific subgroup meetings, as well as general lab meetings to address the specific needs of his students and their projects. Through frequent discussions with Alvin, I was able to fully define a specific hypothesis and formulate aims that would be able to address the questions at hand. I feel very lucky to have found such an ever-supportive PI who exemplifies outstanding mentorship,” continued Connolly.
Huang received his M.D. and neurology residency from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan and his Ph.D. in neuroscience was received from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he studied gene regulation in the context of memory formation. For his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, he innovated stem cell technologies and uncovered cellular mechanisms important for brain functions in health and in disease.
Sophie Brown, a fifth year biomedical engineering graduate student, worked closely with Huang on an expansive project that spanned both Huang’s lab and that of her advisor, David Borton. “He has an infectious enthusiasm for the work that encourages a sense of camaraderie and collaboration in the room,” she said. “I will never forget our initial meeting where I pitched him a lengthy slide deck detailing my previous work and hopeful plans to develop a project on investigating the role of microglia in Alzheimer’s disease using a three-dimensional cortical ‘microtissue’ model. His genuine interest and response of ‘I really think you have something here’ defined a critical turning point in my early years as a Ph.D. student,” she said.
“His reaction would have a lasting impact on me and my research, marked by his positive recognition for the potential of my project and by extension, his confidence in me. This particular interaction of ours will always live fondly in my memory as a defining moment that altered the trajectory of my graduate studies for the better,” noted Brown.