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Zheng Luo has been named the 2020 Charles H. Best Fellow – a prestigious appointment awarded annually to an outstanding postdoctoral student in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

Named after Charles H. Best, who co-discovered insulin in 1921 as a young graduate at the University of Toronto, the fellowship provides support for postdoctoral researchers who have the potential to become leaders in their fields.

“It’s a great privilege to be recognized by the Best fellowship committee,” says Luo. “The award will help me fulfill my research goals and it’s a great boost at this stage of my career.”

Luo joined Professor Ben Blencowe’s lab in April 2019. His work, which  focuses on alternative splicing, a process allowing cells to generate vastly more protein variants from a limited number of protein-coding genes, could lead to new therapies for autism, schizophrenia and other brain disorders.

“While we and others have worked on the splicing code for many years, the rules governing the fidelity of this process remain poorly understood,” says Blencowe. “Zheng is applying a new approach to this problem that I believe holds tremendous promise.”