BBS Alumna Hannah Tam and Emerging Scientists Receive 2026 International Birnstiel Award
The 2026 International Birnstiel Award for Doctoral Studies in Molecular Life Sciences has named its laureates — the eighth cohort since the award was established in 2019. This year's selection drew 109 nominations from institutions around the world. Six researchers have been chosen: Joe Dobbs (European Molecular Biology Laboratory), Maximilian Madern (Hubrecht Institute), Hannah Tam (Harvard University), Stephen Tang (Columbia University Medical Center), Abigail Xie (Sloan Kettering Institute), and Zhejing Zhang (Kyoto University).
Hannah Tam, Harvard University
Supervisor: Ya-Chieh Hsu
Regeneration is challenging for mammals. When skin is injured, it scars. Although the wound closes, many skin cell types, including hair follicles, sweat glands, blood vessels, pigment cells, and fat, are lost. Consequently, skin can no longer regulate temperature or relay sensory information. By contrast, skin injured before birth can regenerate these diverse cell types, thereby rebuilding functional skin without scarring. Why regeneration disappears after birth, and whether it can be restored, were unknown. Hannah Tam discovered that regeneration is not lost but blocked. By comparing wounds before and after birth, she identified a fibroblast population in mice unique to wounds after birth that produces CXCL12, a signal that attracts excessive nerves to the wound. By removing CXCL12 or reducing neuronal activity, she found that skin injured after birth can regenerate diverse cell types, restoring functional and scarless skin. This work identifies a major barrier to scarless regeneration and provides opportunities for regenerative therapies.
Hannah Tam studied biochemistry at Northeastern University (United States), graduating summa cum laude in 2019. She then pursued her doctoral research at Harvard University with Ya-Chieh Hsu in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Tam is now a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego in the laboratory of Ardem Patapoutian.
Featured Publication:
Tam H., Peng J., Freeman R., Shwartz Y., Brielle S., Garg S., Rahmayanti S., Crocker S., Coon D., Hsu Y.-C.: “Hyperinnervation inhibits organ-level regeneration in mammalian skin.” Cell (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.02.027