Samantha A. Morris, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, was recently named an Allen Distinguished Investigator by The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group of the Allen Institute. Morris, who is one of five awardees, will receive $1.5 million in research support over three years to develop new experimental and computational tools to track stem cell differentiation, and share the tools with the community to gain a broader understanding of how to program cell identity.

“This award is enabling us to take a big risk in our arena by generating a completely new technology, one which will be useful to the scientific community. That’s really exciting for us,” Morris said in a statement.

Congratulations, Dr. Morris!