Five Johns Hopkins Medicine Researchers Named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
03/26/2026
Jeff Coller, Ph.D., Noreen A. Hynes, M.D., M.P.H., Erika Matunis, Ph.D., Michael I. Miller, Ph.D. and Chirag Parikh, M.D., Ph.D. are among 449 scientists, engineers and innovators elected to the 2025 class of fellows. This nomination is considered one of the highest distinctions in the global science community and recognizes the fellows’ achievements in the advancement of science and their role in scientific leadership.
Coller is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of RNA Biology and Therapeutics with appointments in the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. His research has produced seminal discoveries in messenger RNA stability and translation, demonstrating that the genetic code is a major determinant of mRNA fate and reshaping our understanding of gene expression. He is co-founder of Tevard Biosciences and WyveRNA Therapeutics and holds numerous patents for RNA-based therapeutic applications.
Hynes is being honored for distinguished service to global public health in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. She directs the Geographic Medicine Center in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Medicine. She also serves as the associate medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the director of research for the Johns Hopkins Special Pathogens Center, and co-director of the infectious disease concentration for the Master of Public Health program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A physician, Hynes is trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, tropical medicine and epidemiology, with medical and public health experience in both international and domestic settings. Her research focuses on vaccine-preventable diseases, tropical diseases, zoonotic infections and high-consequence pathogens. Hynes has been on the Johns Hopkins Medicine faculty since 1997. Previously, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer, as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, as senior adviser on medicine and public health to the vice president of the United States, and as deputy assistant secretary for public health emergency preparedness, while also serving as director of the Office of Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Erika Matunis, a professor of cell biology, focuses on the renewal and differentiation of stem cells, the cells that give rise to all other cells in the body. Working with fruit fly models, her laboratory team has shown that damage to the testis makes germ cells in fruit flies revert to a more stem cell-like state to repair the damage. To understand how this and other stem cell processes happen, Matunis’ lab searches for molecular signals that determine when stem cells start to differentiate into other cells and how those signals influence the type of cell they become. Matunis earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University and completed postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University. She is a board member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Institute for Excellence in Education, has served on the board of directors of the Genetics Society of America and is a fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology.
Miller is director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and co-director of the Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute. A biomedical engineering professor specializing in computational medicine, his research develops tools to analyze brain imaging data in order to predict the risk of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease and schizophrenia, years before clinical symptoms appear. He is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Parikh is a professor of medicine, division director of nephrology, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The AAAS honor recognizes Parikh’s significant contributions to medicine, particularly for developing predictive algorithms using blood and urinary proteins for the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases. His research has also refined the clinical definition in perioperative kidney injury and hepatorenal syndrome, developed strategies to reduce kidney discard in deceased donor transplantation, and advanced regulatory approvals of kidney injury biomarkers. Parikh also co-directs the Center for Data Science and AI for the Department of Medicine. This center is developing novel approaches using electronic health records to improve patient safety and care efficiency.