At the UW, Theberge is co-principal investigator of the with Erwin Berthier, 91̽��affiliate professor of chemistry. They study the chemical signals that cells use to communicate with one another. The organization of our bodies, with different types of cells taking on discrete functions, depends on this biochemical language.

“I am very grateful for this funding which will enable us to explore new research directions with the goal of both better understanding molecular mechanisms and improving patient care,” said Theberge, who is also an adjunct faculty member in the 91̽��Department of Urology.

“This award is a testament to the visionary interdisciplinary research program led by Professor Ashleigh Theberge, which lies at the intersection of analytical chemistry, chemical biology, and human health,” said , professor and chair of chemistry at the UW.

Theberge’s research has numerous applications in medicine, environmental science and beyond. She is pursuing the chemical mechanisms underlying asthma, allergy, infectious diseases, urologic conditions, kidney disease, rheumatic conditions and environmental exposure to different substances. Her team’s efforts include developing analytical chemistry tools to advance medicine, such as biomimetic microfluidic systems for integrated cell culture and analysis and at-home sampling tools for diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

Theberge has formed dozens of collaborations in other fields since joining the 91̽��faculty in 2016. She works closely with clinicians, for example, to investigate how chemical processes are linked to patient symptoms. A related, emerging area of research centers on using at-home sampling tools to ask molecular questions that are not possible with traditional, in-person studies. Early funding for this new research direction was provided by the UW’s and the . Theberge leveraged results from those studies in her Schmidt Sciences Polymath proposal.

In the Schmidt Sciences Polymath Program, Theberge plans to “explore the potential of tailoring drug treatments and doses based on individual biochemistry using remote specimen collection, data analysis and AI to map molecular pathways at the cellular level,” according to the award announcement.

“The Schmidt Sciences Polymath Program allows bold, creative thinkers to pursue knowledge across boundaries and in doing so, to help all of us better understand the deep interconnections between people, planet and universe,” said Schmidt Sciences co-founder Wendy Schmidt.

Theberge, who will be promoted to professor on Sept. 16, holds numerous patents and has received several awards. Among them are a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Kavli Microbiome Ideas Challenge Award. Theberge’s efforts in mentoring — which promote values of and diversity, equity, and inclusion — have earned her a 91̽��Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, the Department of Chemistry Faculty Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring and recognition as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Mentor.

Theberge earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Williams College and a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining the 91̽��faculty, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Two faculty members at the 91̽�� have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 16, are , an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and , an assistant professor in the School of Oceanography.

Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics — the fellowships honor those early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.

The 128 Sloan Fellows for 2021 were selected in coordination with the research community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in their field. Each fellow will receive $75,000 to apply toward research endeavors.

This year’s fellows come from 58 institutions across the United States and Canada, spanning fields from evolutionary biology to data science.

Theberge is an assistant professor of chemistry. Her research probes the chemical signals that cells use to communicate with one another. The organization of our bodies, with different types of cells taking on discrete functions, depends on this biochemical language.

“We’re alive because our cells can exchange chemical messages in appropriate ways,” said Theberge, who is also an adjunct assistant professor of urology at the UW. “All cells — human cells, microbes — utilize chemical signals to deliver information and influence the properties of other cells.”

Young is an assistant professor in the School of Oceanography. She studies microbial oceanography, with a focus on the role of marine algae in the carbon cycle. In particular, her research explores polar ecosystems and other extreme environments, and the biochemistry of photosynthesis. Her research combines field work, algal culture manipulations and biochemical and molecular analyses to uncover the evolution and adaptations of biological carbon fixation in the oceans.

“Half of all photosynthesis happens in the oceans, across an amazingly diverse collection of organisms,” Young said. “My group’s research focuses on understanding the underlying physiological and molecular adaptations of marine photosynthesis. Understanding how marine algae have and will adapt to a changing climate reveals insights into how life on Earth evolved and will respond in the future.”

For more information, contact Theberge at abt1@uw.edu and Young at youngjn@uw.edu.

Theberge’s research probes the chemical signals that cells use to communicate with one another. The organization of our bodies, with different types of cells taking on discrete functions, depends on this biochemical language.

“We’re alive because our cells can exchange chemical messages in appropriate ways,” said Theberge, who is also an affiliate assistant professor of urology at the UW. “All cells — human cells, microbes — utilize chemical signals to deliver information and influence the properties of other cells.”

Theberge focuses on the chemical messages released by cells, which diffuse out into the environment — be it a body or a colony of microbes — and are picked up by other groups of cells. To measure these signals and characterize their effects, scientists need precision: experimental systems that will let researchers set up a population of cells, identify the types and precise amounts of chemicals the cells release, how they diffuse through the environment, which chemical messages are picked up by other groups of cells and their effects.

Theberge and her collaborators — which include Erwin Berthier, a 91̽��affiliate assistant professor of chemistry and co-founder of the medical device company Tasso, Inc. — develop and manufacture laboratory tools to make these precise measurements possible. These include microscale plastic and gel-based dividers, which can partition commonly used cell culture plates or the surface of a slide into more complex arrangements of compartments. These allow researchers to grow different populations of cells in close proximity and sample the types of chemical signals that pass between them.

“While we pursue our own biological hypotheses, we’re also focused on exporting the technologies we’ve developed to other laboratories,” said Theberge. “We really want these tools to be available and used widely.”

Depending on the arrangement of compartments, signals can diffuse horizontally between cell populations separated by short walls, through vertical stacks of cells or other arrangements. Theberge and her team design their cell culture devices with the physics of fluidics in mind. They precisely control the position of liquids in their devices via capillary forces — the passive forces that allow fluids to flow.

Theberge has also put these tools to work. She has started more than 20 collaborations since joining the 91̽��faculty in 2016. The tools she and her group have developed are being used to identify cellular signals involved in testis development and male infertility, communication between epithelial and endothelial cells in kidneys and the immune system signals involved in inflammation. Some of these experiments study chemical signals present in tissue samples from patients, including a collaboration with the .

Her group has also been working on molecular methods to accurately quantify the amount of different types of chemicals that are received by individual cells.

“That will give us information not just on the type of signal reaching a cell, but how signal strength and origin can affect cell communication,” said Theberge.

Theberge earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Williams College and a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining the 91̽��faculty, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. According to the Office of Research at the UW, Theberge is the 11th faculty member to earn a Packard Fellowship, and the fourth overall from the Department of Chemistry, after Brandi Cossairt, and former 91̽��faculty member Younan Xia.

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For more information, contact Theberge at abt1@uw.edu.