���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������

The award recognizes the ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ developmental biologist for extraordinary research contributions being a mentor who helped train the next generation of outstanding scientists

Lee Niswander has been named the 2026 recipient of the����

A distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, Niswander joins a group of researchers recognized for their exceptional contributions to developmental biology and their dedication to training the next generation of scientists.

Named after Edwin G. Conklin, a pioneering developmental biologist and American embryologist, the medal recognizes both scientific impact and mentorship.��

��

Lee Niswander is a distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������.��

“It is a huge honor to receive the��2026 Edwin G. Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB). I thank SDB for nurturing my career and the education and careers of my trainees through the years,” said Niswander.��“I am extremely pleased to share in the honor of this award with all of my current and former trainees whose research drove our discoveries and revealed the wonders of the embryo.”

This award follows on the heels of Niswander earlier this year receiving the��2026 Hazel Barnes Prize and being elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Niswander is described by her peers and trainees as a generous mentor, thoughtful leader and a disarmingly humble scientist.��

“Lee is fearless,” said Maria Barna, Niswander’s former graduate student who now runs her own lab at Stanford. “[She] has instilled that in me."

Niswander’s work has shaped scientists’ understanding of how the body plan arises in early embryos. Her seminal contributions range from work on FGF signaling in limb development to the role of cell cilia during early organ development, and, more recently, efforts to understand the mechanisms underlying human neural tube defects.

'Wow, this is really cool'

Niswander originally became interested in research as an undergraduate at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she first stepped into a lab through a work-study program. “Once I started to do research, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really cool,’” she recalled.

That exposure led Niswander to graduate school at Case Western Reserve University, where she joined the developmental biology program. She remembers thinking, “I don’t know anything about development … I’m going to do that,” before joining the lab of Terry Magnuson, PhD.

Her dissertation work used genetic deletions in mice to probe which regions of chromosome 7 are necessary for embryonic development. She spent time in Sweden learning a specialized technique that helped her complete the work.��

“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if somebody else knows how to do it,” she said. “Go learn from an expert.”

After completing her PhD, Niswander joined the lab of Gail Martin, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco, as a postdoctoral fellow. She began working on limb development, a topic no one else in the lab was pursuing at the time, and trained further at University College London with Cheryll Tickle, PhD, a leading expert in the field.��

During this work, she found expression of FGF4 in the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) is sufficient for limb outgrowth—a finding that reflected the technical curiosity and willingness to seek outside expertise that would come to define her approach to science.��

On her first day as a principal investigator, Niswander walked into an empty lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.��

“It’s just me … I can’t believe they let me do this,” she remembers thinking. This marked the beginning of her independent research career. Soon after, Niswander began a collaboration with Kathryn Anderson, PhD, launching a large-scale forward genetic screen for developmental mutants in mice.��

One major finding to emerge from the screen was in identifying ciliary proteins that help integrate Hedgehog signaling during organogenesis, which Barna describes as, “dogma changing.” The findings reconceptualized cilia from passive “cellular antennas” into active signaling hubs that drive decisions about development. “The cilia is not just a boring antenna that's sticking out of the cell but is like a major signaling center also," Barna noted.��

Seeking the bigger picture

Niswander later returned to the��University of Colorado Boulder, where her work expanded from identifying genes linked to neural tube defects to probing the broader underlying mechanisms.��"[Niswander] was looking for a way to plug in some of these basic discoveries into human health even more,” said Barna.��

Neural tube defects remain a central focus of her current work, reflecting her broader approach to science: “I’d be bored to tears to study anything at one level. I want to see things in that bigger picture,” she explained.��

Niswander continues to teach limb development as a way of sharing what she finds most compelling about developmental biology and modeling the mentorship style she values.��

“I still teach limb development because I think it's such an easy system for somebody to say, ‘Oh yeah, why are my fingers here and my shoulder there?’” she said.��

Although her research has since expanded beyond questions of limb development, her postdoctoral findings still stand out to her. Remove the AER and limb growth stalls; replace its signal with FGF and the limb continues to grow.��

“I still find it astounding,” she said, “that you can take off this whole strip of tissue – the apical ridge – and just put back in FGF, and the limb will continue to grow.”

Across her independent career, Niswander has trained nearly 50 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to careers in science and beyond: professors, scientists, journalists and editors.��

“I have no preconceived notions that somebody’s going to be like me,” Niswander said. “I give people opportunities all the time to pursue the career path that they want."��

For Niswander, what has made it all worthwhile comes without hesitation.��

"The people are my legacy,” she said. "None of this would be fun if you didn't have people in your lab. I live vicariously through all the wonderful people that have come through my lab."��

Barna saw that approach firsthand.��

“She encouraged this kind of bold and free way of doing science in the lab that I try to emulate,” said Barna. “But it’s very difficult to emulate Lee."

Niswander began her work at a single lab bench as an undergraduate, but her career has since evolved into one that has moved across institutions and continents, produced work spanning human disease and developmental biology, and trained dozens of scientists. Yet, Niswander still describes the impact of her work in the same way.

“The research is fun,” she said. “You publish papers and stuff, but to me it’s the people and what they’ve done.”��

In recognizing Niswander with the Conklin Medal, the Society for Developmental Biology said Niswander exemplifies the scientific impact and mentorship recognized by the organization through a career defined by curiosity, fearlessness and a deep commitment to training the next generation of scientists.

—Bradley Worrell contributed to this article��

Did you enjoy this article?����Passionate about molecular, cellular and developmental biology?��Show your support.

��