Donaghue Foundation selects five investigators for long-term support

Five researchers have been awarded $100,000-a-year, five-year grants from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation. The foundation’s first awards through the Donaghue Investigator Program for Health-Related Research were announced in November. The researchers are:

Mark B. Gerstein, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, who will conduct a large-scale analysis of gene sequences and protein structures that will be relevant to understanding the molecular basis of diseases that have been genetically characterized.

Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine, who will study ways to reduce delirium and functional decline in hospitalized older persons with the goal of reducing the length of hospital stays and improving health outcomes.

Zeev Kain, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics, who will identify children who are prone to preoperative anxiety and seek ways to decrease their stress and improve long-term outcomes.

David Rimm, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology, who will study adhesion protein expression as a predictor of cancer metastasis. Discovery of new biological markers in breast or melanoma tumors can greatly enhance early treatment of cancer patients.

Stephen Strittmatter, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology, will investigate axonal regeneration after spinal cord injury. Results could have major positive implications for victims of spinal cord injury and stroke.