Boettcher Foundation awards $250,000 in bridge funding to biomedical researchers facing gaps
Stepping up at a critical moment for biomedical researchers who are reliant on government funding, the Boettcher Foundation is providing timely support to select investigators from its longtime Boettcher Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program.
The Boettcher Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program provides critical early career support and positions recipients at CU campuses and other leading academic and research institutions to compete for additional private, state and federal research funding. Each grant supports up to three years of independent scientific research.
The new effort, Boettcher Investigators Webb-Waring Bridge Funding, is a pilot program designed to provide short-term, catalytic support for eligible Boettcher Investigators in Colorado who are experiencing temporary funding gaps – specifically from the loss of federal funding. This program aims to sustain momentum for promising biomedical research and bridge to the next stage of external funding.
From a pool of 19 eligible applicants, five recipients were chosen. Each will receive one-time funding of $50,000.
The scientists and their research topics are:
CU Anschutz
M. Cecilia Caino, Ph.D., Role of GCN2 in prostate cancer
Suet Nee Chen, Ph.D., Targeted Bridge Support to Advance a Near-Funded NIH R01 on FLNC-EHD2 Signaling in Dilated Cardiomyopathy
CU Boulder
Nausica Arnoult, Ph.D., Regulation of the DNA damage response by non-canonical ORFs
Colorado State University
Jaclyn Stephens, Ph.D., Sustaining the BRAIN: Brain Research Advancement and Innovation in Neurorehabilitation
Allison Vilander, DVM, Ph.D., DACVP, Defining the Mechanisms of Novel Orally Delivered Recombinant Probiotic Trained Immunity Agent
When the Boettcher Foundation recognized a need in its community of past awardees, its leadership turned to a familiar partner: Dan Montez, director of the CU system’s Office of Policy and Efficiency, who manages the annual Boettcher Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program for CU on behalf of the Office of the President.
For 11 years, Montez and his team have played a pivotal role in the process, supporting a distinguished and prestigious systemwide review panel of CU scientists that considers applications from researchers at CU. He welcomed the opportunity to assist and assemble a similar review team to determine awardees for Boettcher Investigators Webb-Waring Bridge Funding. The team consisted of CU Anschutz professors Gidon Felsen, Chad Pearson and Lori Sussel.
“Dan has played a critical role in ensuring the continued success of the Boettcher Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program at CU over the years,” said CU President Todd Saliman. “I’m grateful that he has been asked by the Boettcher Foundation to help administer this new Bridge Funding Program as well.”
The Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program supports early career investigators whose research has a direct impact on human health.
With this new addition of one-time funding, CU’s 80 Boettcher Investigators have received more than $19 million in biomedical research grants over the course of the program, established in 2008.