2025 Halfond-Weil Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Recipient

Luana Nunes Santos, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, has been awarded the 2025 Halfond-Weil Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. A postdoctoral fellow in the Kontaridis Lab since 2021, she is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular biology linking congenital heart disease and autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, she is focused on the role of a novel mutation, the CCNQ gene.

The Halfond-Weil Postdoctoral Fellowship is a competitive grant awarded annually to a talented postdoctoral fellow at MMRI. This grant helps support new scientists as they grow into their independent scientific careers.

I am very happy and honored to have been awarded the Halfond-Weil 2025 Postdoctoral Fellowship Award,” said Nunes Santos. “This is a result of my hard work and dedication towards my scientific career. This grant will beneficiate fostering ground-breaking discoveries on my current research on autism spectrum disorder and rare mutations leading to new therapeutic approaches that can improve patients’ quality of life.”

MMRI thanks the Eighth Masonic District Association of Manhattan Charity Fund for its support of the Halfond-Weil Postdoctoral Fellowship.