Emily Balskus, 38
Chemistry and microbiology
Harvard University
Chemist Emily Balskus of Harvard University is out to expose the crimes and misdemeanors of microbes living in the human gut. She’s shown, for example, how a common gut bacterium interferes with a heart failure treatment: The microbe breaks down the medication before the drug can do its job.
Balskus, 38, originally imagined a career making complex molecules in the lab. “She can do chemistry that very few people in the world can do,” says synthetic chemist Eric Jacobsen, her Ph.D. adviser at Harvard.