Geetu Tuteja, an assistant professor in Iowa State University’s Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, has been selected to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. She is the first Iowa State researcher to receive this honor, and is one of 22 scientists nationwide selected by the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts to receive a four-year, $300,000 grant to conduct biomedical research aimed at advancing human health. As a Pew Scholar, Tuteja will invest her funding into studying genetic networks that help to establish a healthy connection between embryos and their mothers. Tuteja joined the Iowa State faculty in 2015. Last fall, she received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Tuteja’s lab combines experimental genomics, computational biology and molecular biology to investigate the gene-enhancer networks regulating early placental development.