Oakland, California, Oct. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Kenneth Rainin Foundation has awarded $2.6 million through its Innovator Awards program to improve the prediction and prevention of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Funding supports cutting-edge scientific projects internationally that could lead to transformative discoveries.
This year, the Foundation doubled the grant amount to up to $200,000 per project to help research advance along the spectrum from discovery science to direct patient impact.
“We are providing more resources to enable researchers to build their body of work. This is especially important for new research projects,” said Dr. Laura Wilson, Director of Health Strategy and Ventures at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. “We fund unconventional ideas that could have a greater impact on the lives of those who suffer from IBD.”
The Foundation is accelerating the understanding of IBD by supporting diverse areas of research, including diet and nutrition, immunity and inflammation, the microbiome and other disciplines. “This funding will allow us to investigate how genetic predispositions may contribute to the development of IBD, potentially enabling the development of new therapies that might treat or prevent the disease,” said Dr. Marcia Goldberg, Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital.
The Innovator Awards program supports high-risk projects that could lead to breakthrough discoveries about this chronic disease. Grants are awarded to early-career and seasoned investigators pursuing a range of projects.
2018 Innovator Award grantees include:
- Christian Brendel, PhD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital
- Ajay Chawla, MD, University of California, San Francisco
- Gerard Eberl, PhD, Institut Pasteur
- Marcia Goldberg, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Rustem Ismagilov, PhD, California Institute of Technology
- John Leong, PhD, Tufts University
- Roni Nowarski, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- Carla Rothlin, PhD, Yale University
“Although the last decades have seen tremendous progress in how to control inflammation, the final frontier in IBD is how to heal the damaged tissue. The Rainin Foundation’s support encourages us to be intrepid and take on this challenge,” said Dr. Carla Rothlin, Associate Professor, Yale School of Medicine.
Researchers who show significant progress in their first year of funding are eligible for up to two years of additional support. The Foundation will continue supporting 14 Innovator Award grantees from 2016 and 2017.
Innovator Award grantees receiving continued support include:
- Megan Baldridge, MD, PhD, Washington University
- Ken Cadwell, PhD, New York University
- Benoit Chassaing, PhD, Georgia State University
- Jean-Frédéric Colombel, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Timothy Hand, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
- Jun Huh, PhD, University of Massachusetts
- Holly Ingraham, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
- Eric Martens, PhD, University of Michigan
- Corinne Maurice, PhD, and Irah King, PhD, McGill University
- Edward Nieuwenhuis, MD, PhD, University Medical Center Utrecht
- Noah Palm, PhD, Yale School of Medicine
- Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, FIDSA, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Andrea Reboldi, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Neal Silverman, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
“We are delighted to continue our studies applying novel genomics technologies to the role of virus-bacteria interactions in IBD. These explorations, which will uncover new insights into how the microbiota contributes to these diseases, would not be possible without the generous support of the Rainin Foundation,” said Dr. Megan T. Baldridge, Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine.
As a complement to its grantmaking, the Foundation also announced that it will host its eighth annual Innovations Symposium on July 13-15, 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Symposium brings researchers, trainees, and clinicians together to collaborate and advance ideas toward solving IBD.
To learn more about the Rainin Foundation’s research grantees and funding areas, as well as its vision and strategy for solving IBD visit: krfoundation.org/ibd.
About the Kenneth Rainin Foundation
Kenneth Rainin Foundation is a family foundation that collaborates with creative thinkers in the Arts, Education and Health. At the Rainin Foundation, we believe in taking smart risks to achieve breakthroughs. We support visionary artists in the Bay Area, create opportunities for Oakland’s youngest learners, and fund researchers on the forefront of scientific discoveries. Since 2010, the Foundation has awarded over $11 million for promising scientific research projects with the potential to impact treatment and prevention of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. More at krfoundation.org.
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