The road to illuminating the biological mysteries of the human body is filled with hurdles, not the least of which is the daunting task of obtaining funding to support early-stage discoveries.
- By DENNIS NEALON
At Harvard Medical School, the Dean's Innovation Awards addressed that challenge by providing catalytic early support for research projects probing some of the most confounding questions in biomedicine, such as the molecular roots of congenital heart disease, what fuels and regulates the brain's energy consumption, and the interaction between the immune and nervous systems during infection.
Established by HMS Dean George Q. Daley in 2018, the awards program will conclude in 2023. It was designed to boost discovery science; catalyze collaborations; advance technology development; cultivate promising therapeutics projects; and improve health care quality, delivery, costs, and access. In all, more than $29 million was invested across the HMS community, supporting 92 projects involving 169 project leaders at 15 institutions.
