NIH to award over $200 million to support potentially transformative biomedical research projects

The High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, supported by the Common Fund at the NIH has awarded 103 new research grants to support highly innovative scientists who propose visionary and broadly impactful meritorious behavioral and biomedical research projects. The awards total approximately $285 million in support over five years beginning in 2022.

The High-Risk, High-Reward Research program supports investigators at each career stage who propose innovative research that, due to their inherent risk, may struggle in the traditional NIH peer-review process despite their transformative potential.

Awards from the IDeA jurisdictions include:

NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Recipients

• Joe R. Delaney, Medical University of SOUTH CAROLINA, Tumor Suppressor Vulnerability Conferred by Aneuploid Loss of Haploinsufficient Metallothionein Genes
  
• Aditya M. Kunjapur, University of DELAWARE, Determining Age-Dependent Metabolic Changes in Tumors and Their Microenvironment
  
• Aaron McKenna, Dartmouth College (NEW HAMPSHIRE), Annotated Lineage Trees of Murine Development

NIH Director’s Early Independence Award

• Sarah R. Ocañas, OKLAHOMA Medical Research Foundation, Sex Chromosomal Regulation of Hippocampal Microglial Activation with Alzheimer's Disease and Aging