Eight HMS Researchers Receive NIH Director’s Awards

The National Institutes of Health has announced recipients of 2012 Director’s Awards, a program that encourages creative thinkers to pursue innovative ideas about biomedical and behavioral research.

Of the eighty-one awardees, eight are affiliated with Harvard Medical School. The awards are intended to support visionary science that exhibits the potential to transform scientific fields and speed the translation of research into improved health. The NIH Common Fund supports these awards under the High-Risk, High-Reward program.

“The Common Fund High-Risk High Reward program provides opportunities for innovative investigators in any area of health research to take risks when the potential impact in biomedical and behavioral science is high,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins in a statement.

The program is divided into three separate awards: The Pioneer award, the New Innovator award, and the Transformative Research award.

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The Pioneer Award challenges investigators at all career levels to develop highly innovative approaches that have the potential to produce a high impact on a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research.

Recipients:

	Gary Yellen, Harvard Medical School professor of neurobiology
	Chao-Ting Wu, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics

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The New Innovator Award supports investigators who are within 10 years of their terminal degree or clinical residency, but who have not yet received a Research Project Grant (R01) or equivalent NIH grant, to conduct exceptionally innovative research.

Recipient:

John Higgins, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of systems biology at Massachusetts General Hospital

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The Transformative Research Awards Program promotes cross-cutting, interdisciplinary approaches and is open to individuals and teams of investigators who propose research that has the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms.

Recipients:

	David Altshuler*, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital; Chief Academic Officer, Broad Institute
	Chad A. Cowan*, Harvard Medical School and Harvard University assistant professor of stem cell and regenerative biology
	Emery Brown, Harvard Medical School professor of Anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital
	Howard L. Weiner, Harvard Medical School professor of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
	Kai W. Wucherpfennig, Harvard Medical School professor of neurology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

*Altshuler and Cowan are co-PIs for this award.