Cuba Samaniego Awarded Hypothesis Fund Grant

Christian Cuba Samaniego, an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Ray and Stephanie Lane Computational Biology Department, has been awarded a Hypothesis Fund grant to support early stage research exploring why cellular reprogramming remains inefficient — and the role timing may play in rewriting a cell's identity.

The project, "Revealing the Input-to-Phenotype Landscape of Cellular Reprogramming Through Synthetic Biology," takes aim at a long-standing mystery in regenerative biology. While the key transcription factors that convert adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells are well known, most reprogramming attempts still fail. Cuba Samaniego's team proposes that the missing piece may not be which factors are used, but when and how they are activated.

"Christian openly challenges the stagnation in deepening our understanding of one of the most famous sets of transcription factors," said Hypothesis Fund Scout Karmella Haynes. "By using synthetic gene circuits, he aims to leap over the technical hurdles that have prevented scientists from rigorously exploring both stoichiometry and time. If successful, this research could have important implications for the molecular boundary between primordial versus mature cells, and cancer versus stable cell states."

The Hypothesis Fund supports foundational research that is too early for traditional grant programs — ideas without preliminary data but with the potential to transform understanding of complex systems. The fund empowers a diverse network of scientist scouts to identify proposals that challenge conventional thinking and address systemic risks to human and planetary health.

For more information, visit the Hypothesis Fund website.