image: Dr. Jin is named the 2026 Peter Gruss Young Investigator for her outstanding contributions in Neuroscience research.
Credit: Scripps Research
In recognition of her innovative experimental approaches and breakthrough discoveries on the genetic mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders, Dr. Xin Jin has been named the 2026 Peter Gruss Young Investigator.
“The field of nominees was incredibly impressive; however, Dr. Jin stood out among the nominees for her creative and multidisciplinary integration of methodologies to make tremendous progress toward understanding principles of brain development and function. She is well on her way to becoming a leader in the neuroscience field,” said Dr. David Fitzpatrick, Scientific Director and CEO of MPFI and a member of the PGYIA selection committee.
Unraveling the Genetic Mechanisms Behind Brain Development and Disease
Dr. Jin is an HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar and an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Scripps Research. She is also a member of the Dorris Neuroscience Center and an Adjunct Professor of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego. Her work has overcome a long-standing hurdle in understanding the genetic contributions to developmental brain diseases and disorders. By developing and optimizing new technologies, including high-throughput, multiplexed in vivo screening approaches, Dr. Jin and her team are accelerating the understanding of gene mutations in the brain. Her strategy allows for the simultaneous investigation of the diverse effects of multiple genetic mutations on cellular mechanisms across various cell types and tissues during development. Through these innovations, her lab aims to uncover the fundamental principles by which genomes build and maintain complex neural systems over time and how mutations related to various disorders impact these systems.
“The fields of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders have been longing for a ‘convergence’ to map the heterogeneous genetic mutations onto a limited subset of signaling pathways on which they act. Now for the first time, Xin’s work has demonstrated the possibility of identifying such subsets in key pathways,” described Nobel laureate Dr. Ardem Patapoutian, who nominated Dr. Jin for the award.
Dr. Jin earned her B.Sc. in Chemistry from MIT and her Ph.D. in Biology from The Rockefeller University, working in the Lab of Cori Bargmann. As a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, she developed and applied in vivo high-content genetic screening technologies to study brain development and homeostasis. She has received the Pew Biomedical Scholar, McKnight Scholar Award, Early Career Investigator Award from the International Society of Autism Research, and was named as one of the ‘35 Innovators Under 35’ by MIT Tech Review.
About the Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award
The Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award is awarded biennially by the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience to recognize a young neuroscience investigator who has made significant contributions through collaboration, creativity, and curiosity‑driven research. The award honors the legacy of Dr. Peter Gruss’s work as former President of the Max Planck Society and key founder of MPFI.
“I’m absolutely thrilled and deeply honored,” describes Dr. Jin. “It’s especially meaningful to be recognized in the name of Peter Gruss — a fearless leader and also a developmental biologist whose work has long inspired me.”
As the 2026 Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award recipient, Dr. Jin will receive a $5000 prize and will deliver a keynote lecture at MPFI’s Sunposium Conference on March 10, 2026 in West Palm Beach. Dr. Jin is the 4th recipient of this award; previous winners include Dr. Michael Yartsev, Dr. Gloria Choi, and Dr. Viviana Gradinaru.
This award is made possible through the generous support of Ms. Raquel Rodriguez, a lawyer and the Chair of the Florida Offices of the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. Ms. Rodriguez is a long-time supporter of MPFI’s work and the life science industry and supports the award in honor of Dr. Peter Gruss’s legacy as president of the Max Planck Society.