First Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Awards Announced

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced recently its first grant awards, totaling more than $4.2 million, under the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Award Program. The program was developed to enable promising young scientists conducting research in cancer, heart disease, AIDS, sickle cell anemia, and other blood disorders to pursue careers in clinical investigation.

Although the Foundation initially planned to award up to 10 individual grants, its peer review panel recommended funding 14 scientists at $100,000 each for 3 years. An additional 2 years of support will be considered based on the investigator’s access to other funding sources and his/her record of independent scientific accomplishment.

Award Program Extended

The Foundation’s Board of Trustees has voted to extend the Clinical Scientist Award Program for another year. Applications for the 1999 awards will be available in the fall.

"We are encouraged and pleased that the quality of the proposals we received was so high that our independent peer review panel recommended an increase in the number of awards," said Joan E. Spero, President of the Foundation. "The projects we are funding clearly reflect Doris Duke’s intentions that we focus on promising young researchers working in these four critical areas of medicine."

The Awardees

The deans of medical institutions nominated the applicants, with no more than two nominations accepted from each institution. A list of award-winners follows.

Awards for AIDS research were given to:

Rany Condos, MD, New York University Medical Center for Aerosol IFN-y Treatment to Promote The Response in TB/AIDS

Andrew D. Badley, MD Ottawa (Canada) General Hospital for Pathophysiologic Role of Enhanced Fas Susceptibility and Fas Ligand Production in Pathogenesis of HI V Disease

William E. Cunningham, MD, MPH, UCLA School of Public Health for AIDS Health Outcomes and Access to Medical Care

Michael E. Hagensee, MD, PhD, Louisiana State University School of Medicine for Predictors of Cervical Dysplasia in HIV-Infected Women

Grants for research on sickle cell disease and other blood disorders went to:

Marshall S. Horwitz, MD, PhD, University of Washington School of Medicine for Familial Leukemia

Alison R. Moliterno, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for The Role of the Thrombopoietin Receptor in Myeloproliferative Disorders

Jonathan G. Drachman, MD, University of Washington School of Medicine for The Molecular Basis of Inherited Thrombocytopenia

Eleanor S. Pollak, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for Regulation of Expression of Procoagulant Proteins Prothrombin and Factor VII

Cancer research grant recipients were:

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine for Clinical and Transgenic Models/or Cancer Vaccines

Edmund K. Waller, MD, PhD, Emory University School of Medicine for Enhancing Immune Reconstitution in Cancer Patients

James D. Brooks, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine for Prostate Cancer Prevention through Induction of Phase Two Enzymes

Jennifer J. Griggs,MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine for Racial Variations in Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

The awardees of cardiovascular disease research grants included:

Daniel M. Bloomfield, MD, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University for Prevalence and Prognostic Significance of T Wave Alternans

Alison E. Bard, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for Multimodality Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Acute Stroke

The Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Award Program is overseen by a Scientific Advisory Council chaired by James B. Wyngaarden, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).