Annual report : 1998 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Date:
1998
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report : 1998 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Some of the most promising research in biomedicine is being done by investigators with strong backgrounds in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. 16 We also were involved in several activities in the therapeutic sciences that reach beyond the competitive award programs. BWF provided support for a timely “National Clinical Research Summit,” convened by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association to examine the clinical research enterprise from the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders and to propose a strategy for ensuring its future support. In addition, we connected to professional and scientific organizations in pharmacology, toxicology, and medical research by sponsoring plenary lectures at the annual meetings of the Society of Toxicology and the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and by providing support for young scientists to attend a national meeting of the American Federation for Medical Research. Reproductive Science BWE considers reproductive science to be seriously underfunded and understudied. Although our awards in reproductive science represent a modest share of BWF’s grantmaking, we nonetheless believe that work by our awardees is helping extend knowledge in this crucial scientific area. BWF targets at least one of our Career Awards in the Biomedical Sciences to this field, and this year awards went to two researchers in reproductive science—one of them studying the complications that diabetes causes during pregnancy and the other studying the role of the hormone estrogen and its intracellular receptor in the regulation of gene activity during human growth and development. In addition, BWF made our first award through the Reproductive Scientist Development Program (RSDP), which helps U.S. obstetrician-gynecologists working in the basic reproductive sciences bridge the postdoctoral years and initial faculty years. RSDP is a consortium supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, professional societies, and foundations. RSDP supports an awardee’s postdoctoral years, and BWF provides support for the first three faculty years. BWF also continued, in partnership with the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Foundation, a postdoctoral research fellowship in obstetrics and gynecology. Beyond these competitive award programs, BWF catalyzed the development and successful launch of the first “Frontiers in Reproduction” course, held in spring 1998 at the Marine Biological Laboratory. This is a hands-on, laboratory-based, career- development course designed to teach participants state-of-the-art research technologies and to help them develop molecular and cellular research concepts and applications in reproductive science. The keen competition for enrollment ensured that the 16 course participants—from the United States and nine other countries—represented some of the most promising young physicians and Ph.D. scientists entering the field. The course achieved excellent reviews and is next scheduled for spring 1999. Interfaces between the Physical and Biological Sciences In 1996, BWE launched a new award program to encourage the interdisciplinary training of promising graduate and postdoctoral students from the physical, chemical, and computational sciences so that they might bring their quantitative and theoretical approaches to the biological arena. These institutional awards, made for the first time in 1997 and offered every other year, are aimed at breaking down traditional departmental structures and barriers that often impede the cross-training of students. The program highlights the growing recognition that some of the most promising research in
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