Fuchs goes boldly where no stem cell biologist has gone before

Elaine Fuchs began her career with an act of rebellion, submitting a three-page essay on the inadequacies of the GRE in lieu of test results with her graduate school applications. Such breaks with tradition would come to define her approach to science.

Elaine Fuchs

Fuchs, a professor of mammalian cell biology and development at the Rockefeller University, has won the 2022 Bert and Natalie Vallee Award in Biomedical Science for her foundational research showing how stem cells create, maintain and repair our skin.

“I began my career in biochemistry and slowly migrated into stem cell research and cancer, so for me to receive this award from the ASBMB is really special,” Fuchs said. “I look forward to being at the annual meeting and talking about the work that we have been doing over four decades.”

In her nominating letter, Helen Blau, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote, “Innovation is a hallmark of Fuchs’ work. She has repeatedly exploited a diversity of approaches to probe old questions in new ways.”

A desire to impact human health motivated Fuchs’ career transitions: from physical chemistry as an undergraduate to the biochemistry of bacterial sporulation as a Ph.D. student to skin cell biology as a postdoc and in her own lab. Each transition required a leap into the scientific unknown.

“You can never solve an equation about life,” Fuchs said. “It took me much of my career to realize that that’s what I enjoy most about biology. There are always new questions that emerge from each experiment.”

Although Fuchs no longer works at the bench, she is as passionate about her research as when she started her lab 40 years ago. She continues to inspire junior researchers to become fearless in their approach to science.