Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado is a

molecular biologist Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

, an Emeritus Investigator of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

, and President and Chief Scientific Officer of the

Stowers Institute for Medical Research The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is an independently operated, non-profit organization focused on foundational biological research, based in Kansas City, Missouri. The institute is home to Principal Investigator labs and core Techn ...

. The Sánchez Alvarado Laboratory focuses on understanding the regenerative capabilities of the

planarian Planarians (triclads) are free-living flatworms of the class Turbellaria, order Tricladida, which includes hundreds of species, found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats.pp 3., "Planarians (the popular name for the group as a whole ...

flatworm Platyhelminthes (from the Greek language, Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") is a Phylum (biology), phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, Segmentation (biology), ...

Schmidtea mediterranea ''Schmidtea mediterranea'' is a freshwater triclad that lives in southern Europe and Tunisia. It is a model for regeneration, stem cells and development of tissues such as the brain and germline. Distribution ''Schmidtea mediterranea'' is found ...

.'' In 2015, Sánchez Alvarado was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, and to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 2018 for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original scientific research. In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation awarded Sánchez Alvarado the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for “… his contributions to the field of regeneration—from the identification of crucial genes that control regeneration in living organisms, to the potential for regenerative medicine to treat disease.”

Life

Born in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, Sánchez Alvarado attended the Colegio Emil Friedman for elementary and high school education, where he first cultivated his interest in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

. After receiving a BS in molecular biology and

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

in 1986, he attended the

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine University of Cincinnati Health (UC Health) is the healthcare system of the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. It trains health care professionals and provides research and patient care. The system is affiliated with the University via ...

for his PhD in

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

and

cell biophysics Cell biophysics (or cellular biophysics) is a sub-field of biophysics that focuses on physical principles underlying cell function. Sub-areas of current interest include statistical models of intracellular signaling dynamics, intracellular transpor ...

in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Robbins. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1992, he carried out postdoctoral studies from 1994 to 1995 in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

at the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in W ...

, Department of Embryology under the mentorship of Dr. Donald D. Brown. He was then appointed Staff Associate at the Department of Embryology to run his own independent research group and during which he started to develop the planarian '' S. mediterranea'' as a research organism to study animal regeneration

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez Alvarado, Alejandro Living people 21st-century Venezuelan biologists Vanderbilt University alumni University of Cincinnati College of Medicine alumni 1964 births Stowers Institute for Medical Research people