Building a Legacy of Transformative Science

The Endowed Scholars Program has served as a key stepping stone in the careers of pioneering researchers, including nine Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators and three National Academy of Sciences members.

Nearly three decades ago, leaders at UT Southwestern Medical Center invested $60 million in philanthropic funds to establish a program to help young scientists launch their research careers. Since 1998, the Endowed Scholars Program in Medical Science has provided support to over 140 newly appointed tenure-track assistant professors, recruiting some of the best and brightest minds to UT Southwestern and laying the foundation for continued excellence in biomedical research.

“The selected candidates demonstrate exceptional skill and promise as independent researchers,” says Joan W. Conaway, Ph.D., Vice Provost and Dean for Basic Research. “UT Southwestern provides them with rich financial support and the latest tools, equipment, and resources they need to succeed.”

Supporting Crucial Research

To understand the program’s far-reaching impact, consider the career of Vincent Tagliabracci, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, who joined UT Southwestern as a Michael L. Rosenberg

Scholar in Medical Research. His study of enzymes rewrote the textbooks on pseudokinases, a novel branch of the protein kinase family that was previously thought to be catalytically inactive. He discovered that these so-called “zombie enzymes” can carry out different chemical transformations than their classical counterparts, which could shape our understanding of bacterial infections and diseases.

In 2018, more than a year before COVID19 plunged the world into a global health crisis, Dr. Tagliabracci and his team decoded the secrets of one obscure pseudokinase, selenoprotein-O (SelO). Soon afterward, they realized it was similar to an important protein called NiRAN in SARS-CoV-1, the virus that caused an outbreak of SARS in the early

2000s. When its genetic cousin, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19, emerged, they were ahead of the curve and building on knowledge already at hand. Subsequent studies during the pandemic allowed them to identify a key step in the viral life cycle that the virus uses to camouflage its genetic material.

“A significant number of proteins are often overlooked in research due to a lack of direct association with human diseases, resulting in their underappreciation. Our goal is to focus on studying these underexplored proteins that others tend to ignore,” says Dr. Tagliabracci, who credits the Endowed Scholars Program with enabling this and other groundbreaking discoveries. “Without this support, we might never have had the opportunity to pursue this kind of curiosity-driven investigation.”

Dr. Tagliabracci’s work has gained national recognition. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and was the recipient of the 2020 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research – the eighth UT Southwestern researcher to receive the coveted prize. More recently, he received the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology for “potentially lifesaving research” and the 2024 Earl and Thressa Stadtman Young Scholar Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, recognizing his promise as an emerging scientist.

His achievements exemplify the potential of the Endowed Scholars Program to serve as a runway to take researchers to new heights.

“Our donors have helped us build this platform to invest in faculty members who are true scientific leaders,” Dr. Conaway says. “An academic institution without talented people is just a building, but an environment with highcaliber researchers – that is a place where great science is born.”

Joan W. Conaway, Ph.D., Vice Provost and Dean for Basic Research

Vincent Tagliabracci, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular Biology