UMDNJ postdoctoral researcher receives 2012 NIH Director's Early Independence Award

Mona Batish, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, is one of 14 scientists nationwide who have received the 2012 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Early Independence Award. This prestigious award program, which includes funding of $1.25 million for five years, is designed to encourage young scientists who have demonstrated outstanding scientific creativity, intellectual maturity and leadership skills with the opportunity to conduct independent biomedical research by skipping the conventional post-doctoral training period and moving directly into a faculty position at a sponsoring university.

Dr. Batish, who soon will become an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, plans to use the award to work toward developing tools for the detection of tumor-causing alterations in chromosomes, which are an underlying cause of several kinds of cancers. These tools will provide early diagnosis so that appropriate treatment can be performed to prevent the development and spread of cancers.

Carol Newlon, PhD, professor and chair of the department and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at New Jersey Medical School, says, "The fact that so few people receive this award from the NIH confirms something I knew already, what a stellar researcher Dr. Batish is. She has a bright career ahead of her, and it is my honor and that of this department that she has embarked upon it here."

As she worked toward her PhD, Dr. Batish received several best poster and oral presentation awards. In 2011, she received an Executive Women of New Jersey Graduate Merit Award. This year she was awarded the Stanley S. Bergen, Jr., M.D., Medal of Excellence as the top graduating PhD student at UMDNJ-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and a New Jersey Medical School Faculty Organization Outstanding Graduate Student Award for academic excellence, leadership & research accomplishments.