Hualiang Pi named a 2025 Searle Scholar

Hualiang Pi, assistant professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and a member of the Yale Microbial Sciences Institute, has been named a prestigious Searle Scholar for her work on iron biomineralization and bacterial organelle assembly in the gut.

The Searle Scholars Program makes awards to selected universities and research centers to support high-risk, high-reward independent research of exceptional young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry. 

The Pi Lab uses genetic, biochemical, structural biology, and imaging techniques to study the microbial stress defense mechanisms associated with bacterium Clostridioides difficile - a primary cause of colonic infection when antibiotics disrupt the balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut.

It had long been thought that membrane-bound organelles – the specialized structures that perform specific functions within cells - are unique to cells that have a membrane-bound nucleus (so called ‘eukaryotic’ cells), while more primitive bacterial cells lack such organelles. 

But recent findings overturn this notion, revealing that bacteria also possess membrane-bound organelles with specialized functions.

Research in the Pi lab will investigate the molecular mechanisms by which a novel type of iron storage organelle are formed and interact among host, pathogen, and gut commensals, to uncover new targets to combat intestinal infections.

Hualiang Pi received her PhD in Microbiology from Cornell University and conducted postdoctoral training at Vanderbilit University Medical Center. She joined Yale in 2023.

The Searle Scholars Program is funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust and administered by Kinship Foundation.