Genomics professor Michael Skinnider has been awarded a 2025 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. He received the fellowship on Oct. 15 for his research on unknown metabolites: small molecules inside the human body that play key roles in metabolism and disease.
Awarded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, this year’s fellowships recognize 20 early-career scientists and engineers. Each fellow receives $875,000 over five years to pursue their research.
“Many of the previous recipients are people whose work has been very inspiring to me and who I’ve looked up to for a long time,” Skinnider said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “It’s really a thrill to be in that company.”
Since the fellowship’s founding in 1988, the Packard Foundation has awarded more than $500 million to 735 researchers across 55 universities throughout the United States.
Skinnider’s lab investigates metabolites and their links to human diseases, such as cancer, using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools.
The challenge in researching these unknown molecules, Skinnider said, is a lack of information. “Sometimes it feels like there’s a piece missing, and we just don’t have enough information to do more than sort of take some random guesses,” he told the ‘Prince.’
Skinnider first grew interested in metabolite discovery as an undergraduate student at McMaster University when he researched antibiotics produced by bacteria. Although his M.D./Ph.D. training led him through other scientific fields, he said he always had “this gnawing feeling that metabolism and metabolite discovery was one of the most important things that [he] could possibly be working on as a computational biologist, and ended up coming back to it.”
The Packard Fellowship is among the most flexible research grants in the country, providing early-career scientists the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects — freedom that Skinnider says will enable his lab’s exploratory work.
“It will allow us to sort of pursue the most risky or perhaps exploratory hypotheses,” Skinnider said. “There are opportunities to develop new technologies that might not have been part of the vision at the outset ... [which could] shed some light on the problem itself and illustrate some potential solutions.”
Skinnider’s lab has already begun further research on metabolites by refining its computational models and conducting experimental tests.
“How do we go from knowing their structure to knowing their function?” Skinnider said. “We have some ideas about what to do there that are percolating right now.”
Julie Kim is a News and Podcast contributor. She is from Northvale, N.J. and can be reached at julie-kim[at]princeton.edu.
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
Read More
Navigating the move from a small-town bubble to the orange one
Synai FerrellAdjusting to Princeton is a process for everyone, but if you come from a farm or small American town, the bustling and diverse Princeton can be an overwhelming contrast. For rural students, college is a flurry of all things new, inviting opportunities for growth and coming with its own set of challenges.
Adjusting to Princeton is a process for everyone, but if you come from a farm or small American town, the bustling and diverse Princeton can be an overwhelming contrast. For rural students, college is a flurry of all things new, inviting opportunities for growth and coming with its own set of challenges.
Princeton rowing shines at 60th Head of the Charles Regatta
Chloe Lydia LiPrinceton rowing excelled at the 60th annual Head of the Charles Regatta, highlighted by the women’s lightweight team’s first place finish.
Princeton rowing excelled at the 60th annual Head of the Charles Regatta, highlighted by the women’s lightweight team’s first place finish.
Staff Picks: Football vs. Harvard
Lily Pampolina, Jordan Halagao, and Lucas NorThe ‘Prince’ Sports section gives its predictions for a high-caliber Ivy League football matchup against Harvard.
The ‘Prince’ Sports section gives its predictions for a high-caliber Ivy League football matchup against Harvard.