Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center member Tannishtha Reya, PhD, has won the highest honor that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists and engineers. Reya, an assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, was one of 56 researchers from across the country to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, at a ceremony July 26 at the White House. Reya has significantly advanced the field of stem cell research by demonstrating how "hematopoietic" or blood stem cells maintain their ability to perpetually renew themselves and survive indefinitely. Her discoveries ultimately may enable scientists to grow stem cells in the laboratory and transplant them into patients with blood disorders, immune defects and select genetic diseases. In addition, her work suggests that the signals that are critical for growth of normal stem cells may be hijacked by cancer cells to allow their uncontrolled growth. Her new presidential award provides an additional five years of research funding from the National Institutes of Health.