Four Harvard clinician-scientists win early-career grants

Four Harvard physician-scientists are among 19 early-career researchers selected for grants to further their work bridging lab discoveries and clinical medicine.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute said today it will give each grant winner $375,000 over five years to help doctors as they are beginning their research careers. The money must be used for direct research expenses, such as hiring a technician or buying equipment, and not the awardee's own salary, HHMI said.

In another $4 million Howard Hughes initiative announced today, 10 Massachusetts medical and dental students will conduct biomedical research for a year.

The Harvard physician-scientist winners and their projects:

Dr. Matthew Freedman, Harvard Medical School, will study a "gene desert" on chromosome 8, an area populated with few genes but apparently involved in prostate, colorectal, and breast cancers.

Dr. Timothy Graham, Harvard Medical School, will learn how a protein in the blood may be related to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and ways that cellular receptors for the protein may contribute to developing the disease.

Dr. Regina LaRocque, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, will explore cholera, a bacterial infection that has plagued people since the seventh century, and its effect on the human genome by studying families in Bangladesh to see if there are specific human genes linked to the risk of contracting cholera.

Dr. Joshua L. Roffman, Harvard Medical School and Mass. General, will pursue schizophrenia's effects on the molecular level to see how particular proteins and folate levels may be related to how severe symptoms are.

The students research scholars are:

Cedar Fowler, Tufts University School of Medicine
Samantha Jordan, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine
Angela Lee, Harvard Medical School
Paul Romesser, Boston University School of Medicine

Research training fellows are:

Lior Braunstein, Harvard Medical School
Ann Cai, Harvard Medical School
Allan Mabardy, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Rosalyn Sulyanto, Harvard University School of Dental Medicine
Guadalupe Villarreal, Harvard Medical School
Corinna Zygourakis, Harvard Medical School