$2 Million Gift Establishes the George Wojtech Chair in Neurobiology at MDI Bio Lab

Philanthropy

$2 Million Gift Establishes the George Wojtech Chair in Neurobiology at MDI Bio Lab

• June 13, 2025

The MDI Biological Laboratory is establishing its first endowed faculty chair, thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor. The George Wojtech Chair in Neurobiology is named for a New Jersey resident who displayed enormous courage and spirit through a long battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

"Our entire community is honored and humbled by this gift," said Hermann Haller, M.D., MDI Bio Lab's President and CEO. "It's a gesture of great confidence in the Laboratory's future as a center for biomedical discovery, and it will make a difference in the future of human health."

The $2 million endowment provides essential funding for identifying new therapeutic approaches to the treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS. With support from the Laboratory's Board of Trustees, Haller appointed Assistant Professor Emily Spaulding, Ph.D., as the inaugural recipient of the new position.

"I am deeply grateful to the donor for this gift, which provides much-needed stability and assurance to my new laboratory," Spaulding says. "The support from our incredible community, along with the memory of those who have fought ALS, provides daily motivation to my lab as we work to uncover new therapies for this devastating disease."

Spaulding will be the guest for an upcoming MDI Science Café, "Worming our Way to a Better Understanding of Neurodegenerative Disease".

The café will be held on Monday, June 23 at 5 p.m. in the Maren Auditorium, on campus, and on Zoom. Refreshments will be served and registration is free.

ALS affects more than 200,000 people worldwide. It has no cure and there are few treatment options. And the types of physiological disruptions that contribute to ALS are often seen in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's, Huntington's and Alzheimer's. Taken together these disorders affect millions.

A native of Rockland, Maine, Spaulding is breaking new ground in scientific understanding of how disruptions in the organization of cell structures can lead to neurodegenerative disease such as ALS. Still early in her career, she has published research and technically advanced imaging that upended some conventional thinking about the inner workings of the cell.

Spaulding works with a tiny, transparent roundworm, C. elegans , to pursue innovative research on an intricately organized structure of the inner cell called the "nucleolus" that, when disrupted, contributes to degenerative diseases.

Revealing how the normal mechanisms of nucleolar organization can go awry will inform the search for therapies that prevent or repair the damage that causes neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.

Spaulding's work has been published in the journals Science, Nature Communications, Journal of Neuroscience, and others, including new research published in Genetics just this month.

Rigorous and innovative research can't happen without talented and motivated scientists such as Spaulding. As MDI Bio Lab works to grow its capacity for cutting-edge research, this new investment will support its neuroscientists' pursuit of their own paths of discovery, with the goal of eliminating the threat of diseases such as ALS.

"We know that providing smart, innovative people with state-of-the-art technology and the resources needed to freely explore new ideas is a foundation for world-changing biomedical science," says Haller.

"Establishing endowed faculty positions such as this provides stable, long-term funding needed to attract and retain outstanding scientists, accelerate discoveries and make life better for those we love."

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