Two teams including HMS faculty have been awarded S-Index Challenge prizes by the National Institutes of Health. The S-Index Challenge encourages innovators to develop approaches for measuring the scientific impact of data sharing while also emphasizing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data practices and real-world research impact.
Traditional measures of scientific impact, such as the h-index, focus on a researcher’s publications and how often they are cited. The NIH Data Sharing Index — or S-index — instead recognizes researchers who create and share high-quality datasets that enable new discoveries and serve as valuable resources for the scientific community.
“By rewarding high-quality data sharing, beyond simply data generation, the S-index aims to accelerate discovery and foster a culture in which data sharing and team science are recognized as meaningful scientific contributions,” said Michael Chiang, director of the National Eye Institute, which led the challenge on behalf of the NIH.
A team led by Griffin Weber, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the third-place prize for their project, “Engaging key stakeholder communities to promote data sharing and reuse, and to understand impact through a composite S-index.” The prize comes with a $150,000 award.
Joshua Goldstein, HMS professor of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was part of a team that received the second-place prize for their project, “The SHARE Index: a unified metric for recognizing exemplary data sharing behavior.” The prize comes with a $300,000 award.
Six early-career postdoctoral researchers from HMS have received funding awards from the Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF). Each awardee will receive $255,000 in funding over three years to investigate some of the most compelling unanswered questions in the life sciences and address critical challenges in human health.
LSRF finalists were chosen by the organization’s peer-review committee from a pool of more than 850 applications. Award sponsors then selected the finalists they wished to fund from this peer-reviewed group.
The LSRF awardees from HMS and their proposed research projects are:
- Erik Bao, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, “Dissecting the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer initiation in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers”
- Joseph Kreitz, HMS research fellow in surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, “Investigating the role of microbial contractile injection systems in human health and disease”
- Kevin Lin, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Dana-Farber, “Targeting multiple myeloma through the midnolin-proteasome pathway”
- Jenny Seo, research fellow in microbiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, “Unveiling the spatial landscape of thousands of viral proteins”
- Patrick R. Smith, HMS research fellow in cell biology at Dana-Farber, “Regulation of form and function in the human placenta”
- James Warner, research fellow in microbiology at HMS, “Evolutionary trajectories and molecular drivers of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus”
Arda Mizrak, research fellow in cell biology at HMS, has received the Porter Prize for Research Excellence—Postdoctoral from the American Society for Cell Biology.
The Porter Prize recognizes a postdoctoral researcher for their scientific excellence, in particular their contributions to the advancement of science and the novelty and creativity of their findings.
Mizrak is based in the lab of Wade Harper, the Bert and Natalie Vallee Professor of Molecular Pathology and chair of the Department of Cell Biology at HMS, and the joint lab of Robert Farese Jr. and Tobias Walther at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Sloan Kettering Institute. He was recognized for his work on single molecule trafficking in lipid droplet formation.
Wendy Chung, the HMS Mary Ellen Avery Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, has received the ASHG Scientific Achievement Award from the American Society of Human Genetics. The award recognizes remarkable contributions to human genetics and genomics research over the last decade.
“Each honoree has helped shape a stronger, more collaborative, and more impactful field,” society President Susan Slaugenhaupt said of this year’s awardees.
“Their achievements inspire our community and reflect the promise of genetics to improve lives around the world,” Slaugenhaupt added.
Chung was recognized for discoveries in genomic medicine, including helping identify more than 60 genes linked to human disease. Her leadership has helped translate genetic discoveries into better diagnoses, improved screening methods, and emerging treatments for patients.
Chung and her fellow awardees will be recognized at the society’s annual meeting in October in Montreal.
Two HMS postdocs have been named Damon Runyon Fellows by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The prestigious award supports promising young scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators, providing $300,000 in funding over four years to investigate cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention.
The new fellows from HMS are Nicholas Aboreden, HMS research fellow in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, with sponsor Kimberly Stegmaier, and Shuya Wang, HMS research fellow in pediatrics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with sponsor David Pellman.
