Mariana Byndloss, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been selected as a 2026 Frontiers of Science Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Frontiers of Science is a symposium series aimed at bridging the boundaries of scientific fields by bringing together early-career scientists to expose them to research and colleagues outside of their fields. The Frontiers program “identifies future leaders of science, both within the U.S. and abroad, and presents this select group with a valuable network for them to develop their leadership potential,” according to the NAS.
A committee of NAS members selects fellows from among young researchers who have already made recognized contributions to science. Byndloss is one of 81 fellows selected this year, representing “the nation’s brightest young scientists from industry, academia and government,” the NAS said in an announcement.
“It’s an honor to be selected for the 2026 Frontiers of Science cohort and to have the opportunity to connect with outstanding early-career faculty across various scientific fields,” Byndloss said. “It will be a great chance to participate in discussions about the future of science and to explore new collaborations that may guide my research in new directions.”
Byndloss, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2018, studies the links between the gut microbiota (microorganisms that reside in the intestines), host metabolism and disease. She and her team are exploring how the host and microbiota work together to promote health, and what happens when environmental factors like diet, antibiotics and inflammation disrupt the microbiota and increase risk for colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease, childhood obesity and other disorders.
For each of the last five years, Byndloss has been among the world’s “Highly Cited Researchers” — scientists whose papers have been cited most frequently by other scientists.
Byndloss received a 2026 ASM Award for Early Career Basic Research from the American Society for Microbiology and a 2024 FASEB Excellence in Science Award. In 2023, she was selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as one of the first Freeman Hrabowski Scholars, and she was one of eight Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease.
Byndloss earned her DVM and PhD from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in her native Brazil and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Davis before joining the Vanderbilt faculty. She is co-director of the Vanderbilt Microbiome Innovation Center, a campuswide effort to advance microbiome/microbiota research, therapy, education and policy.
In 2026, the NAS will hold four Frontiers of Science symposia, including the national U.S. symposium that was held March 5-7 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, California. More than 7,000 young scientists have attended Frontiers of Science symposia since the program began in 1989, and among these fellows, 374 have been elected to the NAS, and 22 have been awarded the Nobel Prize.