Media Highlights
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s mission is to advance biomedical science by supporting research and other educational activities. This newsletter is a curated sample of research and activities conducted by recipients of Fund support.
Upcoming grant deadlines:
Preterm Birth Initiative | Deadline: Dec. 4, 2018
Postdoctoral Enrichment Program | Deadline: Jan. 15, 2019
Physician-Scientist Institutional Program | Deadline: Feb. 15, 2019
Features
Stanford Medicine, 9-12-2018
New med school curriculum expands opportunities for research, learning
A new $2.5 million grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and other funding sources could pay for that additional full year…
A new curriculum at the School of Medicine is transforming the way medical students learn and prepare for careers in clinical care and scientific investigation.
The Discovery Curriculum resulted from a three-year review of the curriculum that involved more than 100 faculty, staff and students. The goal was twofold: first, to create opportunities and flexibility for students’ long-term research, personal growth, exploration
Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 9-13-2018
Learning the Ropes of Science Journalism
A Conversation with the 2018 AAAS Mass Media Fellows 2018 AAAS Mass Media: Jonathan Lambert and Sadie Witkowski
The American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Mass Media Fellows program has been connecting scientists to science journalism for the past four decades. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund has been a proud sponsor of the program since 1998 and has sponsored 40 fellows.
Research
EurekAlert!, 9-13-2018
High-resolution genomic map gives scientists unprecedented view of brain development
The research was funded by the V Foundation, the Sontag Foundation; the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust; the American Association for Cancer Research; the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; the Hyundai Pediatric Cancer Foundation; the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; and ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude.
Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have created a massive database of the changes in gene activity of individual cells in the cerebellum during embryonic development and immediately after birth.
EurekAlert!, 9-13-2018
New means to fight ‘un-killable’ bacteria in healthcare settings
This study was made possible by the financial support of Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Cystic Fibrosis Canada.
Scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have identified new means of fighting drug-tolerant bacteria, a growing global threat as menacing as drug-resistant microbes. Little is known about the mechanisms leading to tolerance, a strategy that makes bacteria “indifferent” to antibiotics and almost “un-killable,” which results in chronic infections extremely difficult to treat and cure.
Duke Today, 9-12-2018
Brain Has Natural Noise-Cancelling Circuit
This research was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Holland-Trice Graduate Fellowship in Brain Sciences and the National Institutes of Health (R01 DC013826).
To ensure that a mouse hears the sounds of an approaching cat better than it hears the sounds its own footsteps make, the mouse’s brain has a built-in noise-cancelling circuit.
It’s a direct connection from the motor cortex of the brain to the auditory cortex that says essentially, “we’re running now, pay no attention to the sound of my footsteps.”
Futurity.org, 8-31-2018
Diseased heart muscle cells have oddly short telomeres
The National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, a Stanford School of Medicine Dean’s Fellowship, the Canadian Institutes of Health, the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, the National Science Foundation, the Stanford-Coulter Translational Research Grant Program, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford’s microbiology and immunology department, and the Baxter Foundation supported the work.
People with cardiomyopathy have abnormally short telomeres in the muscles that contract the heart. Researchers say the finding could lead to new pathways for drug discovery.
EurekAlert!, 8-21-2018
New method may allow country-level real-time surveillance of drug-resistant tuberculosis
KRJ was supported by the Fogarty International Center (US NIH 1K01TW009213) and by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund/American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
New method may allow country-level real-time surveillance of drug-resistant tuberculosis
Grants
Philanthropy News Digest, 9-6-2018
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Seeks Proposals for Preterm Birth Research
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund created the Preterm Birth Initiative to increase the understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying parturition and spontaneous preterm birth.
The program is designed to bring together diverse interdisciplinary groups with expertise in genetics/genomics, immunology, microbiology, and proteomics along with the more traditional areas of parturition research to address scientific issues related to preterm birth. The fund has committed $3 million for the initiative and anticipates awarding five grants of up to $500,000 over a four-year period ($125,000 per year).
STEM Education
EducationNC, 8-24-2018
Teachers of the year look forward to the start of school
Freebird McKinney, the 2018 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Teacher of the Year from the Piedmont-Triad Region of the state, explained that the teachers of the year got together and decided on a shared platform to advocate for.
At a recent State Board of Education meeting, the North Carolina teachers of the year were honored by the Board and Superintendent Mark Johnson as they embark on a year of traveling around the state and being a voice for teachers statewide. EducationNC caught up with some of them and asked them to talk about what they’re most excited for in this coming year, and what they’re anxious about.
EducationNC, 8-20-2018
EducationNC’s Annual Report 2017-18
Many thanks to the following list of donors for funding us during the 2017-18 year…
55,078. That’s how many miles our team drove – and biked – this year across the state of North Carolina meeting students, learning from teachers, engaging with school leaders, covering policymakers, gathering all kinds of folks in communities across the state we love, creating spaces locally, statewide, and online to inform the issue of education.
Comments are closed.