Margaret Gardel investigates how living, biological matter differs from inert, physical matter. One of her projects involves developing new ways to study the cytoskeleton, the dynamic scaffolding of the cell. Her work may ultimately provide biomedical scientists with the means of devising new therapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Gardel received a $2.5 Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health in 2007. She is part of a Chicago research team that has launched a study of catastrophic deformation research in cell division and other natural processes, with funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation. She also is a 2008 Sloan Foundation research fellow.