The assistant professor of genetics has been named a 2026 Vallee Scholar by the Vallee Foundation. Vallee Scholars are recognized as exceptional early-career investigators whose pioneering research spans evolutionary cell biology, bacterial immunity, antibiotic action, genome architecture, engineered immunity, gut tolerance and blood stem cell biology. Jerby will receive $400,000 over four years to investigate how cells sense diverse biochemical cues, such as metabolites and small molecules produced at disease sites, and how immune cells transfer molecular cargo to target cells. Harnessing these mechanisms, Jerby aims to engineer therapeutic cells that are guided by biochemical cues to reach and act only at sites of disease and deliver therapeutic molecular cargo to eliminate or reprogram target cells.