An HHMI investigator is paid a salary by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute with a renewable appointment of up to seven years.
All investigators hold faculty appointments at their host institutions.
At MIT, HHMI investigators continue to teach, advise graduate students and serve on faculty committees. This money supports the purchase of new equipment and supplies, and it pays the salaries of students, postdoctoral fellows and technical assistants in the lab. A native of Kansas, Professor Sanders received the BA and MA degrees from the University of Kansas at Lawrence, and the PhD degree in 1992 from the University of California at Berkeley. She did postdoctoral research at the University of California at San Francisco and came to MIT in January. Asymmetry on the cellular level is the basis for asymmetry on the organ-ismal level in many cases, and organization of the cytoskeleton is crucial for the development of normal skin and hair.