The Charles H. Hood Foundation, a family foundation focused on enhancing the lives of children through pediatric research and innovation, recently announced bridge funding for BUSM\u2019s Bob (Xaralabos) Varelas, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry along with two other Boston-area researchers.<\/p>\n
The funding restores unanticipated funding reductions that were made to several ongoing grant projects across the country. The Foundation reached out to the original funder to discuss how partnerships with them could help close the gap on the funding shortfalls. An initial group of research projects were identified in the New England area and the Hood Foundation collaborated with the impacted institutions seeking ways to leverage available resources to allow the projects to continue to move forward.<\/p>\n
The one-time award of $50,000 will go toward Dr. Varelas\u2019 project, Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms Controlling Multi-Cilia<\/em>. Defects in the formation or function of cilia found on the surface of cells throughout the human body contribute to numerous pathologies that collectively are referred to as ciliopathies. \u201cWe are grateful to the Charles H. Hood Foundation for supporting our research, which we hope will help direct novel treatment approaches for cilia-related disorders,\u201d said Dr. Varelas.<\/p>\n “One of the most problematic issues in conducting scientific research is the prospect of losing your funding mid-stream,\u201d said Hood Foundation Trustee Jeffrey Boutwell. \u201cWhen the Charles H. Hood Foundation learned that this indeed might happen to several important pediatric research projects in our area, we wanted to help, given our 75-year history of promoting children’s health in New England.<\/p>\n While this need fell outside the Hood Foundation\u2019s core funding initiatives, the opportunity to provide the gap funding along with the researchers\u2019 sponsor institutions desire to help keep these projects on track was compelling. In addition to the rigorous application process that had been required by the original funder for initial grant approval, the Hood Foundation further ensured that each project met the eligibility requirements and fit within the Foundation\u2019s mission. With each of the selected projects partially funded by the Hood Foundation, this collaborative effort to leverage funding enabled the researchers to meaningfully complete the research or allowed the projects to reach a position to seek additional funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The one-time award of $50,000 will allow research on molecular mechanisms controlling multi-cilia to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64853,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64852\/revisions\/64853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}