Harvard Awards Stem Cell Grants

One year after its establishment, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) awarded 12 University-wide scientists with its first set of grants last week, laying the financial groundwork for its goal of advancing stem cell research from the laboratory to the clinic.

Each of the $150,000 grants will be apportioned on a half-yearly basis over two years.

The grant recipients were chosen from an applicant pool of 70 by a committee consisting of Harvard-affiliated scientists.

According to Dr. Charles G. Jennings, executive director of the HSCI, the most important factor in the selection of the grant recipients was the impact that the researchers’ work will have towards clinical research. But Jennings emphasized that this does not mean that the projects approved for funding had immediate applications in patient care.

“By clinical relevance, I don’t necessarily mean clinical application,” he said. “In many areas for which stem cells have relevance, there still needs to be a lot of basic science research.”

Other factors which influenced project selection included chances for additional funding opportunities.

David T. Scadden, co-director of the HSCI, said that several of the chosen projects either involved embryonic stem cell research, which current federal legislation does not support, or they were picked because they did not have extensive preliminary data.

“The grants were given to projects that were considered of exceptional novelty; high risk, high impact efforts that would be difficult to fund through the NIH due to either the early stage of the science or the involvement of human [embryonic stem] cells restricted by government regulations,” he said. “The NIH is an inherently conservative institution funding long term projects that have already demonstrated a substantial record of success—this is a very powerful mechanism for sustaining research, but not for enabling innovation.”

Of the 12 grants awarded, five involved embryonic stem cell research. Other recipients use adult stem cells or partially differentiated progenitor cells.

Researchers who received the funding included one Harvard Society Fellow, two post-doctorate fellows, and eight junior faculty but only one tenured faculty member.

“There is definitely a career development facet of the grants to encourage people at the start of their careers to pursue stem cell research,” Jennings said.

New HSCI grants will be awarded on a yearly basis and will likely not be subject to renewal.

For many grant recipients such as Mathew W. Lensch, research fellow at Children’s Hospital, this grant will be the major, if not only, financial support towards their studies.

“The grant directly affects my ability to do research for the next two years,” Lensch explained, stating that his salary comes from the grant as well. “I’m just one guy working on one project. This money allows me to be independently funded from federal sources.”

For Lensch, who receives funding only for his work with federally-approved embryonic stem cells, the HSCI grant will enable him to work with non-federally approved embyonic stem cells, specifically those created last year by co-director of HSCI, Douglas A. Melton.

“A small grant can make all the difference in the world to me as a small investigator,” Lensch said. “I’m a small potatoes kind of guy, but I think that the work is important.”

Jennings emphasized that while the sum may not be large, the HSCI grant is enough for many early-stage researchers to carry out their experiments.

“The NIH spends over $30 billion a year supporting research,” he said. “We will invest our money where there is the most impact—$150,000 is not a huge sum, but it’s not a trivial sum either.”

For Rosario S. Parnaute, assistant professor of neurology at HMS and McLean Hospital, who receives funding from other “small-sized foundations” for projects not involving stem cells, the grant money will still only allow her to start pilot research on a small scale.

“It’s very limited what you can do with this amount,” she said, referring to her projects with embryonic stem cells. “But we can do the experiments that we proposed, and I think that is very valuable for us.”

And researchers still remain optimistic about other funding opportunities. Lensch, who advocates on behalf of stem cell researchers on Beacon and Capitol Hill, said he anticipated future relaxation of current restrictions on federal support for embryonic stem cell research.

“I am constantly hopeful that the funding situation will improve—there are certainly some federal currents suggesting this,” he said.

The awarding of the HSCI grants last week coincided with the state Senate’s overwhelming approval of a finalized bill which would unambiguously endorse stem cell research in Massachusetts. The bill, which has reached its final version in the state legislature, is expected to be voted on by the House this week.

—Staff writer Risheng Xu can be reached at xu4@fas.harvard.edu.