ASH presents bridge grants to 13 investigators

Thirteen investigators received ASH bridge grants in August.

The 1-year, $150,000 awards are intended to provide interim support for promising hematology research proposals that could not be funded by the NIH.

The recipients are Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD, of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Alison A. Bertuch, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine; Athar Chishti, PhD, of Tufts University; Hervé Falet, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Carolyn A. Felix, MD, of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Eric F. Grabowski, MD, ScD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Mamta Gupta, PhD, of Mayo Clinic; Peter Kurre, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University; Izidore S. Lossos, MD, of University of Miami; Takahiro Maeda, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Silke Paust, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine; and Jean-Francois M. Rual, PhD, of University of Michigan.

Seventy-four researchers have received ASH bridge grants since the society committed $9 million to create the program in 2012.

David A. Williams

“When NIH does not have the adequate funds to support medical research, science loses,” ASH President David A. Williams, MD, of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Harvard Medical School, said in a press release. “When scientists aren’t funded, they spend more time applying for alternative grant funding than on scientific research and discovery, and some must reduce the size or close their laboratories completely. This environment endangers not only existing programs, but also the next generation of scientists who are growing disheartened with the field and abandoning research careers for other paths.”