Boston, MA (August 5, 2019) - Boston Children's Hospital announced today that two of its scientists have received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. They are part of a select number of CZI grants awarded to scientists at pediatric hospitals. Founded in 2015 by Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is a new kind of philanthropy that is leveraging technology to help solve some of the world's toughest challenges.
The grants were awarded to:
- Jeffrey Moffit, PhD, from the Boston Children's Hospital Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine (PCMM), as part of a collaborative team that received $1.75 million through the CZI Human Cell Atlas Seed Network. Participants in the three-year Seed Networks projects will focus on mapping specific tissues, such as the heart, eye or liver, in a healthy human body. The resulting cellular and molecular maps will be a resource for understanding what happens when disease strikes. Dr. Moffitt will serve as co-Principal Investigator along with Peter Kharchenko, PhD, Harvard Medical School, and Cathy Wu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
- A team of imaging scientists that received a half million dollar grant for the Boston Children's Hospital Cellular Imaging Core through the Imaging Scientists Program. Chinfei Chen, MD, PhD, director of the Boston Children's Hospital Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) Imaging Core, will serve as Principal Investigator on the award, assisted by Cassandra Victoria Innocent, PhD, assistant director of the IDDRC Imaging Core. Their team of Imaging Scientists will work at imaging centers across the U.S. to help increase the interactions between biologists and technology experts, and to improve imaging tools for the scientific and medical communities.
"Boston Children's has an outstanding pediatric research program," says David Williams, Chief Scientific Officer at Boston Children's Hospital. "We believe scientific investigation is the key to understanding childhood diseases -- and often adult diseases -- and to developing better therapies for these diseases. We are very pleased that CZI has recognized this commitment to science at Boston Children's and will be helping to support our research mission by funding these projects."
This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
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About Boston Children's Hospital
Boston Children's Hospital is ranked the #1 children's hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. Today, 3,000 researchers and scientific staff, including 8 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 18 members of the National Academy of Medicine and 12 Howard Hughes Medical Investigators comprise Boston Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children's is now a 415-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care. For more, visit our Discoveries blog and follow us on social media @BostonChildrens, @BCH_Innovation, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.