Dr. Nicolas Lux Fawzi
An internationally recognized leader in his field
April 4, 2022. Dr. Nicolas Lux Fawzi is one of two recipients of The Protein Science Young Investigator Award (The Protein Society, 2022), for making an important contribution to the study of proteins. Dr. Fawzi is an Associate Professor of Medical Science at Brown University. He started his role as a RI-INBRE investigator in 2012 with a Research Proposal Development Project award entitled “Structural characterization of soluble and neurotoxic aggregates of FUS.” He continued with RI-INBRE as a Collaborative Mentor to Dr. William Holmes of Rhode Island College, from 2019 to 2022.
Fawzi is a recipient of two National Institutes of Health Research Project (NIH)(R01) grants: “Turning off the molecular switch for pathological self-assembly of FUS” (NIH 2016-2021), and “Functional and pathological interactions of TDP-43” (NIH 2020-2025). He has also received an National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award “Structural aspects of glutamine-rich domain liquid-liquid phase separation in transcription and RNA processing” (NSF 2019-2024), and several other notable grants.
An internationally recognized leader in his field, Dr. Fawzi was one of few researchers to distinguish structural clarity in proteins following phase separation. His use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy distinguishes disordered protein structure, motions, and interactions with atomic resolution. Fawzi’s research describes the structure of important proteins in ALS and how their mutations lead to disease and is the first step to discovering new therapies for prevention.