NIH Director’s New Innovator Award

Science News About New Innovator Awardees

2012

• New under the sun: Recurrent genetic mutations in melanoma
  May 9, 2012
  Melanoma – the deadliest and most aggressive form of skin cancer – has long been linked to time spent in the sun. Now a team led by scientists from the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has sequenced the whole genomes of 25 metastatic melanoma tumors, confirming the role of chronic sun exposure and revealing new genetic changes important in tumor formation.
  
  
• Game on! UCLA researchers use online crowd-sourcing to diagnose malaria
  May 2, 2012
  Working on the assumption that large groups of public non-experts can be trained to recognize infectious diseases with the accuracy of trained pathologists, UCLA researchers have created a crowd-sourced online gaming system in which players distinguish malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones by viewing digital images obtained from microscopes.
  
  
• Discovery could reduce chemotherapy’s side effects
  March 11, 2012
  A team of researchers at Duke University has determined the structure of a key molecule that can carry chemotherapy and anti-viral drugs into cells, which could help to create more effective drugs with fewer side effects to healthy tissue.
  
  
• Injectable Gel Could Repair Tissue Damaged by Heart Attack
  February 21, 2012
  University of California, San Diego researcher has developed a new injectable hydrogel that could be an effective and safe treatment for tissue damage caused by heart attacks.
  
  
• Molecular motor struts like drunken sailor
  January 8, 2012
  A tiny motor inside of us called dynein, tasked with shuttling vital payloads throughout the cell, staggers like a drunken sailor, quite contrary to the regular, efficient poise of its fellow motors.
  
  

2011

• Rutgers Researcher Exploring Effects of Racism on Immune System
  January 20, 2012
  Professor studying African-American neighborhoods to gauge link between bigotry and body
  
  
• New polymeric material developed at UC San Diego has potential for use in non-invasive surgical procedures
  October 3, 2011
  Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed what they believe to be the first polymeric material that is sensitive to biologically benign levels of near infrared (NRI) irradiation, enabling the material to disassemble in a highly controlled fashion.
  
  
• How to grow wires and tiny plates
  July 14, 2011
  Liquid processing method developed at MIT can control the shapes of nanowires and produce complete electronic devices.
  
  
• Researchers Demystify a Fountain of Youth in the Adult Brain
  July 13, 2011
  Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that a “fountain of youth” that sustains the production of new neurons in the brains of rodents is also believed to be present in the human brain.
  
  
• Studies of Mutated Protein in Lou Gehrig’s Disease Reveal New Paths for Drug Discovery, Penn Study Suggests
  April 26, 2011
  Several genes have been linked to ALS, with one of the most recent called FUS. Two new studies in PLoS Biology, one from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the other from colleagues at Brandeis University, both examined FUS biology in yeast and found that defects in RNA biology may be central to how FUS contributes to ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
  
  
• Transmissible Treatment Proposed for HIV Could Target Superspreaders to Curb Epidemic
  March 17, 2011
  Biochemist Leor Weinberger and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego and UCLA have proposed a fundamentally new intervention for the HIV/AIDS epidemic based on engineered, virus-like particles that could subdue HIV infection within individual patients and spread to high-risk populations that are difficult for public health workers to reach.
  
  

2010

• At Last, A Living Model for an Important Body Channel
  November 11, 2010
  Ion channels provide a way for key molecules to cross into cells, are the means for many swift physical reactions and regulate the movement of fluid across internal cavities in our bodies.
  
  
• Scientists Trick Bacteria with Small Molecules
  October 7, 2010
  A team of Yale University scientists has engineered the cell wall of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, tricking it into incorporating foreign small molecules and embedding them within the cell wall.
  
  
• Binding Site Broadens Prospects For Prostate-Cancer Drugs
  September 6, 2010
  Scientists have found a new binding site in prostate-specific membrane antigen, a cancer-cell-surface receptor.
  
  
• Cell+phone
  September 1, 2010
  The seeds for electrical engineer Aydogan Ozcan’s latest invention—a lensless microscope that can spot pathogens in blood and water samples in remote areas with no access to other imaging technology—were planted in the shadows.
  
  
• University of Pennsylvania-Led Study Identifies New Genetic Risk Factor for Lou Gehrig’s Disease
  August 25, 2010
  An international study led by biologists and neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania has identified a new genetic risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
  
  
• MIT creates technology for high-speed study of zebrafish larvae
  July 18, 2010
  One of the most commonly studied laboratory animals is the zebrafish — a tiny fish with transparent embryos, or larvae, whose internal organs can be easily seen as they develop.
  
  
  
• Common apnea questionnaire needs customization for pregnant moms  
  May 6, 2010
  The Berlin questionnaire, a common tool for identifying obstructive sleep apnea, does not accurately identify pregnant women whose breathing is intermittently interrupted or stopped (a condition called apnea) during sleep, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
  
  
• The Pre-History of Life: elegantly simple organizing principles seen in ribosomes  
  April 12, 2010
  With few exceptions, all known forms of life on our planet rely on the same genetic code to specify the amino acid composition of proteins. Although different hypotheses abound, just how individual amino acids were assigned to specific three-letter combinations or codons during the evolution of the genetic code is still subject to speculation.
  
  
• Researchers find clues to TB drug resistance  
  March 30, 2010
  Two new tuberculosis studies by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers provide good news and bad news about the bacterium that infects nearly a third of the world’s population and a disease that kills nearly 2 million people each year.
  
  
• MIT neuroengineers silence brain cells with multiple colors of light  
  January 6, 2010
  Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light.
  
  

2009

• Engineering-systems approach may lead to new cancer treatments  
  December 4, 2009
  In the past year, University of Virginia biomedical engineer Kevin Janes has won $2.6 million in no-strings-attached funding for his innovative research to better understand how cells "make decisions" for good or ill.
  
  
• Imaging study shows brain abnormalities in chemotherapy patients  
  November 11, 2009
  Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have used neuroimaging to gain insight into a phenomenon known as “chemo brain,” a condition in which cancer patients have difficulty thinking, focusing and remembering.
  
  
• New Synthetic Molecules Trigger Immune Response to HIV and Prostate Cancer  
  November 5, 2009
  Researchers at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body’s immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells.
  
  
• Stretching the Golgi: a link between form and function  
  October 15, 2009
  A research team at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has provided a surprisingly simple explanation for the mechanism and features of the “Golgi apparatus”—a structure that has baffled generations of scientists.
  
  
• Using Simple Genome, Columbia Researchers Move Personalized Medicine Closer to Reality  
  October 13, 2009
  Researchers at Columbia University have developed a statistical method that accurately predicts how an organism will respond to dozens of commonly used drugs.
  
  
• Gene action partially explains treatment success in newborn lungs  
  September 23, 2009
  For more than a decade, obstetrician-gynecologists have given pregnant women facing premature birth steroids to hasten the development of their newborn's lungs. Now a study appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involving a "mystery" gene called Erk3 explains the success of that therapy.
  
  
• High fat diet in pregnancy changes metabolome of mother, offspring  
  September 4, 2009
  A high fat diet during pregnancy not only results in offspring with fatty livers, but actually changes the small molecules that govern metabolism, said a consortium of researchers led by those from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
  
  
• Large-scale study probes how cells fight pathogens  
  September 3, 2009
  Researchers reconstruct a key molecular circuit in mammalian immune cells; genome-scale methods offer a practical model for future studies.
  
  
• Higher drug doses needed to defeat tuberculosis, researchers report  
  July 30, 2009
  The typical dose of a medication considered pivotal in treating tuberculosis effectively is much too low to account for modern-day physiques, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers said.
  
  
• Stem cells’ “suspended” state preserved by key step, scientists report  
  July 9, 2009
  Scientists have identified a gene that is essential for embryonic stem cells to maintain their all-purpose, pluripotent state.
  
  
• Konrad Hochedlinger: A reprogramming revolutionary  
  July 7, 2009
  In 1999, Konrad Hochedlinger squeezed into a packed lecture at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna to hear stem cell researcher Rudolf Jaenisch talk about nuclear transfer cloning techniques.
  
  
• Ed Boyden: The brain engineer  
  March 3, 2009
  At the end of his junior year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998, Ed Boyden was hanging out with friends in the basement of the famed Media Lab, trying to figure out what to do for the summer.
  
  
• Malaria parasite zeroes in on molecule to enhance its survival, team finds  
  February 19, 2009
  A team of researchers from Princeton University and the Drexel University College of Medicine has found that the parasite that causes malaria breaks down an important amino acid in its quest to adapt and thrive within the human body.
  
  
• Penn study finds link between Parkinson's disease genes and manganese poisoning  
  February 2, 2009
  A connection between genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson’s disease has been discovered by a research team led by Aaron D. Gitler, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
  
  
• Wireless Microgrippers Grab Living Cells in 'Biopsy' Tests  
  January 12, 2009
  Johns Hopkins researchers have invented dust-particle-size devices that can be used to grab and remove living cells from hard-to-reach places without the need for electrical wires, tubes or batteries.
  
  

2008

• Science’s Breakthrough of the Year: Reprogramming Cells  
  December 19, 2008
  By inserting genes that turn back a cell's developmental clock, researchers are gaining insights into disease and the biology of how a cell decides its fate.
  
  
• Cells’ Protein-Folding ‘ER’ May Play a Role in Type 2 Diabetes  
  November 24, 2008
  “It used to be that for a long time, we thought that type 2 diabetes was just your insulin not working – insulin resistance,” says Feroz Papa, MD, PhD.
  
  
• Important new step toward producing stem cells for human treatment  
  September 25, 2008
  Harvard researchers produce iPS cells without use of retroviruses.
  
  

Up to Top