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Friday, May 29, 2009

Harvard awards $1M in medical research grants

By Marc Songini

A handful of Harvard University researchers have been awarded more than $1 million total in grants to help them with translational work.

The awards, which in total will range from $1.2 million to $1.5 million, were given as part of the third annual funding round from the Harvard University Office of Technology Development (OTD). The cash is paid out from an internal school fund and will be dispersed to the researchers in increments of $10,000 to $300,000, explained Michal Preminger, senior director of business development at the OTD. The announcement was made Thursday night at the OTD’s Third Annual Life Science Networking Reception, held at the Harvard Club in Boston.

“I think the effect of this is beyond the specific projects funded in the translational area,” said Preminger. “There is a ripple effect, as it engages a broader circle of scientists in translational research and offers a path to advancing the projects to the benefit of society.” She noted there was a special emphasis in wards for work on “significant unmet medical needs in the developing world, as well as special attention to rare diseases.”

The awards were given to the following recipients and projects at Harvard Medical School: Tom Bernhardt, for antibacterial discovery using a chemical suppressor screen; Connie Cepko, for gene therapy for the preservation of vision; Dan Finley, for work on small molecule inhibitors around enzymes; Marcia Haigis, for identification of SIRT4 inhibitors to stimulate fatty acid catabolism; Jose Halperin, for using glycated CD59 as a biomarker for pre-diabetes; Steve Lory, for the development of antimicrobial agents targeting bacterial cell envelope biogenesis; and Junying Yuan, for development of autophagy inhibitors for cancers and acute pancreatitis.

An award also went to Harvard School of Public Health’s Gokhan Hotamisligil, for the development of a therapeutic antibody against diabetes.

Preminger said the awards will be finalized and disbursed in the next few weeks.
 

 

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misidentified the amount of total funding. Harvard University researchers have been awarded more than $1 million total in grants.

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