NIH Issues New Awards

NIH has selected 41 scientists to receive five-year grants totaling more than $105 million to pursue groundbreaking research. The 12 Director's Pioneer Award and 29 Director's New Innovator Award winners for 2007 are part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research initiative. "The conceptual and technological breakthroughs that are likely to emerge from their highly innovative approaches to major research challenges could speed progress toward important medical advances," says NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni. He adds that these awards complement other NIH efforts to support early-career researchers. Several chemists are among the scientists selected for these awards. They include Pioneer awardee Rustem F. Ismagilov, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago, and Innovator awardees Ryan C. Bailey, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Alan Saghatelian, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. The Pioneer Awards provide $2.5 million in direct costs over five years to the recipients and can be awarded to scientists at any stage in their careers. The New Innovator Awards provide $1.5 million in direct costs over five years and are reserved for new investigators who have not received a regular NIH grant.