MCB faculty member Ryan Nett has been named a 2025 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, one of 22 early-career scientists selected nationwide for their promising and innovative work. The Pew Scholars Program supports bold research aimed at advancing human health, and Nett’s selection highlights the growing impact of his lab’s efforts to decode the biochemical language of plants.
“I’m honored to be chosen as a Pew Scholar,” said Nett. “It’s an award designed to support early career researchers doing innovative science, and I’m excited that our work resonated with their review committee. I think we’re part of a broader wave of researchers pushing into the chemical underpinnings of how organisms interact with their environments—whether that’s for defense, communication, or medicine.”
The Nett Lab investigates plant-derived small molecules that have potent biological effects. Many of these specialized metabolites—some beneficial to humans, others toxic—have evolved to help plants survive in complex ecological landscapes.
Nett’s Pew-funded research centers on understanding the chemistry and metabolism of a class of molecules known as non-canonical amino acids, unusual variants of the standard building blocks of proteins. These atypical amino acids accumulate in familiar food crops like cucumbers and legumes, but scientists still know little about how they’re made or what they do.
“These molecules are chemically fascinating,” Nett explained. “They’re structurally similar to amino acids that all organisms use, but they often disrupt biological processes in herbivores or pathogens. Some are highly toxic. Others have neurological effects, which, depending on the context, could be therapeutic. The goal of our project is to understand how plants make these molecules—what enzymes and biosynthetic pathways are involved—and then consider how that knowledge might be used either to remove harmful molecules from crops or to harness useful ones as drug leads.”
The four-year Pew award comes at a pivotal time for the Nett Lab, providing both funding and momentum to explore this new research direction. “The grant gives us the flexibility to pursue this ambitious, more exploratory project on non-canonical amino acids from plants without having to pause or scale back our other ongoing work,” Nett said. “It’s a huge benefit, especially in a funding climate where support for fundamental discovery science can be hard to come by.”
MCB Chair Rachelle Gaudet praised both the recognition and the research: “Ryan’s innovative research on deciphering biosynthetic pathways for specialized chemicals produced by plants is important to understand how and why plants make these molecules. The research also has tremendous potential to enable new bioengineering strategies to make bioactive molecules for therapeutic uses. This makes Ryan a fantastic choice for the Pew Scholars Program, well aligned with their goal to advance human health through research.”
Nett joins a distinguished group of MCB faculty who have previously received the Pew award, including Venkatesh Murthy (2000), Sharad Ramanathan (2011), and Sam Kunes (1994). “I was surprised to hear I was only the fourth person in MCB to receive it,” Nett said. “People in our department have had so much success with many different early career awards, but it’s nice to be in the Pew group alongside scientists I really admire.”
Unlike many Pew Scholars who are nominated internally, Nett’s nomination came from outside Harvard—an indication of his growing reputation in the field. “I was nominated by Jing-Ke Weng, a professor at Northeastern and a leading expert in plant natural products,” Nett explained. “He’s someone I’ve known since I was finishing grad school. Over the years, we kept crossing paths at conferences, and now we’ve even started hosting a yearly joint symposium where our lab members present on their research progress. I’m very appreciative that someone deeply embedded in this area of plant biochemistry felt my work deserved this kind of recognition.”
Weng explains that he nominated Nett for the award because “Ryan is one of the most promising junior faculty members in plant biochemistry I have encountered in many years. His exceptional organizational skills and scientific insight left a strong impression on me.”
Weng praised Nett’s boldness in tackling major unanswered questions in plant biochemistry and his track record of pushing the field forward. “His groundbreaking PhD work on gibberellin biosynthesis revealed convergent evolution between bacterial and plant pathways,” Weng notes. “During his postdoctoral training, he resolved longstanding questions in medicinal alkaloid biosynthesis. Along the way, he has also developed several innovative approaches that have significantly accelerated discovery in our field.”
While not directly focused on human disease biology, Weng emphasized that Nett’s work has important implications for therapeutic sourcing and the development of novel bioactive molecules. “His ability to pursue and execute ambitious, field-defining research makes him an outstanding candidate for this prestigious junior faculty award.”
Since arriving at MCB three years ago, Nett has seen his lab grow rapidly, both in size and in scientific scope. “I came in excited but not really knowing what to expect,” he said. “What surprised me most is how quickly we attracted a really diverse and talented group of people—postdocs who knew they wanted to work in this field, but also grad students who came in with no background in plant chemistry but quickly made it their own.”
Some of the most exciting developments in the Nett Lab have emerged from interdisciplinary collaborations and intellectual curiosity. “We’ve expanded into areas that I couldn’t have predicted,” said Nett, explaining that one of his students is studying new enzymes in the model organism C. elegans, and collaborating closely with Craig Hunter’s lab. Another student, co-mentored by Naomi Pierce (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology), is working on a caterpillar that secretes molecules to manipulate ant behavior. “That’s not strictly a plant-related project, but it reflects the same core interest—how chemistry mediates interactions between organisms,” Nett shares.
Underlying all of this is a fascination with how small molecules can have big effects. “Plants have evolved these molecules for their own purposes, often defense, but as humans we’ve long co-opted them as medicines, poisons, or tools,” Nett said. “Understanding the biosynthetic logic behind them is not only interesting fundamental science—it could eventually give us new ways to engineer crops, discover drugs, or simply understand what we’re eating at a deeper chemical level.”
As a Pew Scholar, Nett is now part of a community of researchers who span disciplines and institutions, all committed to pushing the frontiers of biomedical science. “One of the things Pew does really well is provide an outstanding scientific network,” he said. “I’m looking forward to connecting with other scientists who are thinking creatively about biology and chemistry – and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to pursue this line of research.”
The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, launched in 1985, is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and supports researchers whose work shows exceptional promise in basic and translational science. Each Scholar receives $300,000 in flexible funding over four years.
