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Print Edition StoriesThursday, February 26, 2009
MLSC opens new grant apps, funds internships
By Marc Songini
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The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the agency that oversees disbursing the funds voted by the legislature as part of the 2008 $1 billion Life Sciences Act, next month will once again receive grant applications for promising new investigators. In addition, the center has given the go-ahead for funding a summer internship program.
The MLSC’s new investigator grants are intended to promote cutting-edge research. Under the terms of the new investigator matching grant solicitation, the MLSC awards up to $100,000 annually for each selected grant, for up to two years. Every investment includes a one-to-one match from the participating academic institution.
Center officials said the grants will support research that may lead to life-saving therapies and commercialized products. Ultimately, they may further the goal of sustaining and expanding the state’s vital life sciences super cluster.
In 2008, the MLSC awarded eleven grants worth $3.1 million to new researchers connected with ten different institutions across the state. Those investigators were doing research in different fields. The research included the dissection of signaling pathways in the destruction of an oncoprotein, and the creation of a molecular toolkit for the analysis of the human kinetochore.
The MLSC will accept grants starting on March 9, with the grant solicitation and application materials being posted on the center’s web site.
In other news, the MLSC board also approved the life sciences internship challenge program. This initiative will offer summer internships to some 100 undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors who are considering a life sciences career. Students selected will receive a stipend of $4,800 for eight weeks of work. Host companies or institutions will provide them a dedicated mentor and an internship, potentially with matching funds. Students may apply through the MLSC web site, also on March 9.
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