For the third consecutive year, HSCI awarded seed grants to scientists throughout the Harvard community to provide critical early funding for stem cell research. In June, ten seed grants totaling $1.8 million were awarded to investigators from six HSCI-affiliated institutions (see below), selected from a pool of 66 applicants.
This year’s grants will support stem cell research relating to a host of ubiquitous medical conditions, such as cancer and diseases of the eyes, ears, lungs, and kidneys, as well as investigations aimed at better understanding and harnessing the potential of stem cells for therapeutic purposes.
HSCI’s Seed Grant Program provides two years of funding for projects in areas of stem cell research that will advance HSCI’s mission. A multi-institutional panel conducts a rigorous review process to select the most promising projects. Highest priority is given to projects that are difficult to fund because they are high risk, or that are ineligible for federal support because of restrictions on human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. The grants are also intended to support junior faculty conducting collaborative research.
In 2007, the Paul Singer Family Foundation made a generous gift of $360,000 to the HSCI Seed Grant Program, specifically to support the work of two investigators conducting hESC research. The recipients of the foundation’s gifts are Dieter Egli, PhD, of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Richard Gregory, PhD, of Children’s Hospital Boston.
Since the program’s inception in 2005, HSCI has awarded 35 seed grants totaling $6.3 million.
2007 HSCI Seed Grant Recipients
Li Chai, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Zheng-Yi Chen, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dieter Egli, PhD, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Richard Gregory, PhD, Children’s Hospital Boston
Benjamin Humphreys, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Carla Kim, PhD, Children’s Hospital Boston
Kameran Lashkari, MD, Schepens Eye Research Institute
Stuart Orkin, MD, Children’s Hospital Boston
Sridhar Rao, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Ibrahim Domian, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
Sabina Signoretti, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital