The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded more than $600 million in research funding to 56 of the nation's "most creative biomedical scientists." The Howard Hughes Medical Institute does not give traditional grants, believing that funding specific people, rather than projects, is more efficient for yielding cutting edge research results.

The scientists, 42 men and 14 women, have been appointed Hughes investigators. They will push the boundaries of current scientific knowledge in areas such as microbiology, genetics, and immunology to fields of inquiry that are newer to HHMI, such as bioengineering, synthetic biology, and the ecology of infectious disease, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute said in a statement.

Currently, 300 leading scientists across the nation are Hughes investigators, of which 124 are members of the National Academy of Sciences and 12 have been honored with the Nobel Prize. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is currently the second wealthiest philanthropic organization in the United States, behind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with nearly $19 billion. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes and was used partially in the past as a tax haven for his fortune.