Neuroscientist Xin Jin granted Pew and McKnight awards

Jin is named a 2024 Pew Scholar and receives the McKnight Scholar Award, supporting her research in mapping the genes and cell types in brain development.

June 20, 2024

LA JOLLA, CA—Early in life, networks of genes and molecules interact to form the body’s brain cells. Genetic variants can disrupt this process, sometimes leading to disorders or developmental disabilities. But these neurobiological pathways associated with disease risk remain poorly defined—leading to a lack of effective intervention strategies for neuropsychiatric conditions, as well as limited diagnostic tools.

Xin Jin, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Research, has now been named a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences and granted the McKnight Scholar Award to support her research in this area and reveal the critical drivers of brain development and function.

“This generous support will allow us to build technologies connecting genetic variants with their causal functions in the brain,” Jin says. “I am very honored to be part of this intellectual community and looking forward to learning from everyone.”

Each year, the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences funds early-career scientists who demonstrate promise in the advancement of human health. Jin was selected from among 198 nominees submitted by leading U.S. institutions to receive funding for her exploratory research. Awards will be paid in the amount of $75,000 annually for four years, totaling $300,000.

The McKnight Foundation grants its prestigious awards to exceptional young scientists in the early stages of their research career, particularly those whose work will have an important impact on the study of the brain. As one of the 2024 McKnight Scholars, Jin will receive a total of $225,000 over the course of three years.

At Scripps Research, Jin is developing cutting-edge technologies to uncover the different genes, cells and brain regions involved in neurological conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder. With these novel tools—including the gene editing method she’s pioneered, called Perturb-seq—Jin’s lab is mapping the brain’s genome, one cell at a time.

Jin and her team recently published a study in Cell highlighting Perturb-seq and its CRISPR screening capabilities. They showed they could profile more than 30,000 cells at once, enabling the team to study hundreds of genes in hundreds of cell types in a mere two days. Using these methods, Jin’s ultimate goal is to pave the way toward genomics-inspired therapeutics and diagnostic tools.

Jin has received many awards and honors for her pioneering neuroscience work. She has been a recipient of the One Mind Rising Star Award and was named one of MIT Technology Review’s “35 Innovators Under 35” in 2022. She also received the G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Foundation Award, the Donald E. & Delia B. Baxter Young Investigator Award, the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Award, and the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience. Prior to that, Jin garnered the Early Career Investigator Award from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), a Simons Foundation Collaborative Grant, a Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and an Allison Doupe Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation, among other awards and honors.

Jin will attend the upcoming McKnight Neuroscience Conference in Aspen, Colorado, held June 13-16, 2025. She will also attend the Pew Biomedical Programs annual meeting in spring 2025 to network with other Pew-funded scientists.

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