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Tufts Medical Center Research Fund awards
inaugural grants to researchers
Institutional support will help promote work that
will later be eligible for outside grants
BOSTON (Jan. 26, 2009) – Tufts Medical Center has selected 10 researchers to be the first recipients of awards from the Tufts Medical Center Research Fund, which was established by the hospital to support faculty research in basic and clinical science.
The grants of up to $50,000 a year will support young, promising investigators in establishing their research careers and will enable senior faculty to pursue new research that is currently not funded through outside sources. Faculty peer-review committees selected the 10 recipients of the grants; priority was given to proposals that are likely to attract additional funding from other grant sources.
Tufts Medical Center has traditionally ranked among the top 10 percent nationwide of independent hospitals receiving funding from National Institutes of Health funds for research. However, reductions in the NIH budget has led to significantly fewer awards and at funding levels less than optimum to conduct world-class research. Tufts Medical Center committed to maintaining the Research Fund to ensure the pipeline of new researchers and to support established investigators.
“I am very pleased with the caliber of proposals that will receive funding in this first round of grants from the Tufts Medical Center Research Fund,” said Michael Mendelsohn, MD, Chief Scientific Officer at Tufts Medical Center. “These new projects from our investigators will become highly competitive for federal funding with the work enabled by these Tufts Medical Center awards. Even in these difficult financial times, Tufts Medical Center recognizes that it is critical to support our talent and to invest in the cutting-edge research being done at the Medical Center, which will ultimately improve health outcomes.”
The recipients of the 2009 awards and their projects are listed below:
Alain Charest, PhD
Molecular Oncology Research Institute and Neurosurgery
RNAi-Driven Genetic Dissection of EFGR Signaling Networks in Glioblastoma
Christiane Dammann, MD
Newborn Medicine
Potential Intervention to Prevent Lung injury-Induced BPD in Preterm Infants
Navin Kapur, MD
Molecular Cardiology Research Institute
Endoglin: A Stretch-Responsive Inhibitor of Collagen Synthesis in Cardiac Fibroblasts
Laurel Leslie, MD
Development/Behavioral Pediatrics and Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Balancing Risks and Benefits of Screening for Sudden Cardiac Death Risk Factors in Children with ADHD
Roberta O’Connor, PhD
Geographic Medicine and Infectious Disease
Role of CpMuc5 in Cryptosporidium host-parasite interactions
Susan Parsons, MD
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Linking Quality of Life Information with Clinical Events: A Pilot Study to Improve Communication and Enhance Clinical Decision Making
Christopher Schmid, PhD
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Computer Assisted Abstract Screening
Thomas Trikalinos, PhD
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Developing COPDGene: A Comprehensive Online Synopsis of Genetic Evidence in COPD
MaryAnn Volpe, MD
Newborn Medicine
Moderate O2-Induced effects of Hox genes in lung airway and alveolar formation
Adam Wolfberg, MD
Obstetrics and Gynecology
The Safe Fetus Project
About Tufts Medical Center
Tufts Medical Center is an exceptional, not-for-profit, 451-bed academic medical center that is home to both a full-service hospital for adults and Floating Hospital for Children. Conveniently located in downtown Boston, the Medical Center is the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine. Floating Hospital for Children is the full-service children's hospital of Tufts Medical Center and the principal pediatric teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine. For more information, please visit www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org.
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