MILWAUKEE, Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) has selected six members to receive $50,000 Career Development Awards, a total distribution of $300,000. This group of awardees is ASGCT's second class of Career Development Award recipients, a program in which ASGCT recognizes members who are transitioning toward independence in their careers.
ASGCT's Career Development Awards support independent transformative pilot studies in gene and cell therapy conducted by ASGCT members, particularly those ideas that would be challenging to fund with normal funding mechanisms. The Society is also interested in helping applicants generate preliminary data to use in larger proposals (NIH K awards, first-submission R-level funding, etc.). The recipients were chosen by a selection committee made up of industry leaders identified by the ASGCT Board of Directors.
ASGCT's six awardees are a diverse group from varied and wide-ranging specialties:
Mohommadsharif Tabebordbar, Ph.D.—postdoctoral associate, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Developing liver-detargeted and muscle-tropic AAV capsid variants across species
Geoffrey L. Rogers, Ph.D.—postdoctoral scholar, University of Southern California
Improved strategies for site-specific gene insertion using non-homologous end joining
Daniel L. Kiss, Ph.D.—assistant professor, Houston Methodist Research Institute
Construction of circular RNAs to block miRNA-driven oncogenic transformation
Kshitiz Singh, M.B.B.S., M.M.S.T., Ph.D.—research fellow, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Development of non-viral mechanisms of targeting lung epithelial cells for prenatal gene editing in a large animal model
Christopher Nelson, Ph.D.—assistant professor, University of Arkansas
Characterizing and overcoming the host response to genome editing therapy
Kalpana Parvathaneni, MS, Ph.D.— postdoctoral researcher, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania
Engineered CAR-T Cells to Overcome Alloimmunity in Transplant Rejection
ASGCT is honored to have received such strong interest from its membership and congratulates this strongly-qualified group of awardees. The 2020 Career Development Awards program will begin accepting applications shortly after the 23nd ASGCT Annual Meeting, May 12-15, held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
About ASGCT
The American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy is the primary professional membership organization for scientists, physicians, patient advocates, and other professionals with interest in gene and cell therapy. Our members work in a wide range of settings including universities, hospitals, government agencies, foundations, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. ASGCT advances knowledge, awareness, and education leading to the discovery and clinical application of gene and cell therapies to alleviate human disease to benefit patients and society.
SOURCE American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy
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