Irene Kaplow, an assistant professor in the Ray and Stephanie Lane Computational Biology Department and the Department of Biological Sciences, has been named a 2026 Searle Scholar, joining a class of 15 early career scientists recognized for innovative biomedical research and exceptional promise.

The honor, awarded by the Searle Scholars Program, provides funding to support high-risk, high-reward research across disciplines in the biological and chemical sciences. Each year, a select group of scientists is chosen based on the originality of their research and potential for significant scientific contributions.

Kaplow’s research focuses on how genetic regulation drives the evolution of traits across species, with an emphasis on noncoding regions of the genome known as enhancers. These regions control when and where genes are expressed and can help explain how similar traits arise independently in different mammals. Her work uses machine learning to identify tissue-specific enhancer activity linked to evolutionary traits and to improve predictions across species.

Her current research aims to distinguish between genetic signals tied to long-term evolutionary traits and those influenced by environmental factors such as diet. By developing new computational methods, including a domain-specific language model, her lab seeks to separate stable enhancer activity from changes driven by available resources or lifestyle. Her team's initial studies focus on liver enhancers and dietary traits, with broader applications for understanding how genetics and environment shape gene regulation in health and disease.

For more information, visit the Searle Scholars website.