Howard Hughes Creates $600 Million Research Fund
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is the United States largest private supporter in biomedical research. This week they revealed a five year initiative - $600 million – medical research fund that is full of 56 scientists that have been handpicked from all around the country.
The Chevy Chase-based nonprofit, which conducts biomedical research in collaboration with nearly 70 universities, medical centers and other research institutions, hopes to discover long-term medical advances in genetics and biology through the fund.
The research will include how global climate change affects the spread of infectious diseases and how aging contributes to neurodegeneration. “We think that kind of scientific daring is essential for long-term success. We’ve found over time that it really takes a while to translate discoveries into new therapies for people,” said Avice Meehan, vice president for communications and public affairs at the institute, which was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, the late aviator and film producer.
The scientists were chosen from more than 1,000 applicants in the institute’s first open competition where scientists could apply directly. “We thought that would generate a broader diversity of fields so that we would identify very promising scientists who are working outside traditional disciplines, like physicists and engineers,” Meehan said.
The 42 men and 14 women come from 31 universities and research institutions, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. They will keep working at their current institutions while joining about 300 Hughes investigators, which include two Nobel Prize winners for their discovery of odorant receptors in 2004.
The Baltimore area has a strong base of Hughes researchers and grant recipients, with scientific discoveries funded by the organization ranging from vaccines and treatments to new genetic tests for cancers. The support is also leading to new patents and partnerships attracting life science businesses to Baltimore. With an endowment of $18.7 billion, the institute has invested more than $8.3 billion with scientists in the past 20 years. Biomedical research expenditures at the close of fiscal 2007 totaled $599 million.