Dear Members of the HMS Community:
I am pleased to announce the recipients of the Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards, the Foundry Award Program, and the Quadrangle Fund for Advancing and Seeding Translational Research (Q-FASTR) for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Each of these internal awards is designed to provide Harvard Medical School faculty with funding to pursue innovative research that is challenging to support via other funding channels. It is my great pleasure that HMS can support these impactful research projects. I want to recognize our generous donors — the Blavatnik Family Foundation, Phill and Elizabeth Gross, and the Taplin Family — who have provided funding in support of these programs.
Please join me in congratulating these principal investigators across the HMS Quadrangle and HMS-affiliated institutions.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University
2023 Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards
Dual-targeted “OR-logic” gated CAR T cell therapy to achieve cure in multiple myeloma
Eric Smith (Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Development of allosteric EGFR inhibitor EAI-432 for non-small cell lung cancer
Michael Eck (Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and David Scott (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Off-the-shelf tissue for cartilage repair
April Craft (Harvard University/Boston Children’s Hospital)
Sidestepping iron restriction to treat anemia
Eric Gale (Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital)
Enhancing activity of CAR T cells for the treatment of multiple myeloma
Mohammad Rashidian (Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
2023 Foundry Awards
Support for the Center for Macromolecular Interactions for Operations and Staffing
Kelly Arnett (Harvard Medical School)
Upgrading the QTOF source in the HMS Analytical Chemistry Core
Jon Clardy (Harvard Medical School)
Cost-effective, ultra-high-throughput RNA-seq
Marco Jost (Harvard Medical School)
3D multiplex-FLIM imaging implementation in the MicRoN Core
Paula Montero Llopis (Harvard Medical School)
Replace obsolete slide scanners in the Neurobiology Imaging Facility
Michelle Ocana (Harvard Medical School)
Strategic transfer of an automated confocal screening by imaging system from the DRSC to the MicRoN Core
Norbert Perrimon (Harvard Medical School), Stephanie Mohr (Harvard Medical School), and Paula Montero Llopis (Harvard Medical School)
Human iPS Core: Supporting reprogramming, genome and molecular engineering, stem cell technologies
Sharad Ramanathan (Harvard University)
BPF-NextGen Sequencing Core LIMS implementation project
Robert Steen (Harvard Medical School)
BPF-NextGen Sequencing Core instrument upgrades
Robert Steen (Harvard Medical School)
Upgrades for three microscope stands in the Nikon Imaging Center
Jennifer Waters (Harvard Medical School)
2023 Q-FASTR Awards
Gene editing to treat hereditary deafness
David Corey (Harvard Medical School) and Benjamin Kleinstiver (Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital)
Small molecule therapeutics for HPV associated cancers
Peter Howley (Harvard Medical School)
Structure-based discovery and optimization of novel angiotensin receptor modulators
Andrew Kruse (Harvard Medical School) and Daniel Kahne (Harvard University)
Design of novel protease inhibitors to enhance immune checkpoint blockade in cancer therapy
Mark Namchuk (Harvard Medical School), Alfred Goldberg (Harvard Medical School), David Fisher (Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital), and Galen Collins (Mississippi State University)
Multimodal imaging and machine learning for diagnosis and patient stratification with predictive biomarkers
Peter Sorger (Harvard Medical School) and Sandro Santagata (Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
Development of a synthetic promoter pipeline for safe and efficient gene therapy
George Church (Harvard Medical School)
Using microbiome-derived small molecules to augment cancer immunotherapy
Marco Jost (Harvard Medical School)
Functional antibody screening with micro-capsules: Proof of concept with αEGFR
Allon Klein (Harvard Medical School)
Identification of small molecule binders of the novel cancer immunotherapy target Bird33
Arlene Sharpe (Harvard Medical School)
Targeting tumor endothelial cells for cancer immunotherapy with cytokines
Ulrich von Andrian (Harvard Medical School)
Development of novel AAV-mediated in vivo gene editing approaches to treat inherited collagen VI-related myopathies
Amy Wagers (Harvard University)