Dr. Pushkar Lele, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded the Cells 2018 Young Investigator Award, the first such award given by the journal. Cells is an international peer-reviewed, open-access journal of cell biology, molecular biology and biophysics. According to the announcement, Lele was chosen for his research into flagellar motors in bacteria:
Dr. Lele discovered that these [flagellar] motors behave as ultra-sensitive molecular sensors that detect chemical as well as mechanical stimuli. The impact of this finding was immense, because it identified the sensors that form the basis of the bacterial ‘sense of touch’. This sense of touch enables bacteria to detect the presence of colonizable surfaces and to trigger the onset of infections (Cells Young Investigator Award 2018 announcement).
In addition to the Cells 2018 Young Investigator Award, Lele was also presented with the Engineering Genesis Award for Multidisciplinary Research by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). This award is presented to TEES researchers who secure significant research grants of $1 million or more. Specifically, Lele was awarded for securing a grant from the National Institutes of Health for his research project “Mechanical Regulation of Ultra-sensitivity in E. coli Flagellar Motors.”