2009 HSCI Seed Grant Recipients Announced

For the fifth consecutive year, HSCI awarded seed grants to scientists throughout the Harvard community to provide critical early funding for stem cell research. In May, eight seed grants totaling nearly $1.5 million were awarded to investigators selected from a large pool of applicants across the HSCI-affiliated institutions.

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 with the difficult task of selecting a set of the most promising projects from many superbly qualified applications. Highest priority is given to projects that are difficult to fund from other sources because they are early stage, high risk, or lack sufficient preliminary data.

Continuing federal funding restrictions for the creation of new human embryonic stem cell lines also make projects with such a component of interest to HSCI. The grants are also intended to support primarily junior faculty in the early stages of their independent careers, but also sometimes more senior faculty entering the field of stem cell research from another concentration.

This year's grants will support stem cell research in a variety of targeted disease areas, such as cancer, liver disease, nervous system disorders, and obesity, as well as research in broadly applicable areas of stem cell biology, such as DNA repair, embryonic stem cell differentiation, and bone formation. As HSCI continues its work to support and grow the clinician scientist community in stem cell research, we are pleased to announce that three of this year's recipients are MD/PhD scientists.