Interview Bridge Grant Winners
Raise the Caps!
While the ASH Bridge Grant
program is designed to
provide short-term relief
to talented researchers, in
the long term, continued
investment in NIH is necessary
to keep biomedical research
moving forward.
“When NIH does not
ASH Officers Ken Anderson, MD,
have the adequate funds to
Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, and Dasupport medical research,
vid Williams, MD, are on the Hill
science loses,” said ASH
advocating for increased funding
President David A. Williams,
for NIH and oral chemotherapy
MD. “When scientists aren’t
parity. ASH urges Congress to
funded, they spend more
support biomedical research
time applying for alternative
so the field of hematology can
continue to advance.
grant funding than on
scientific research and
discovery, and some must
reduce the size or close their laboratories completely.”
Unfortunately, NIH’s ability to support promising research
has been seriously hampered by a decade of flat funding,
followed by sequestration cuts that have dramatically
slashed the agency’s budget and kept budget caps tight,
threatening medical research.
To fight for increased NIH funding, ASH proudly cosponsored the Rally for Medical Research Capitol Hill Day on
September 17, 2015 – a National Day of Action where healthcare agency delegates gathered to voice their support for
increasing the NIH’s budget for biomedical research.
All members of Congress, including those who support
funding increases for NIH, need to hear from their constituents
about the negative impact that cuts in funding have had (and
may continue to have) on hematology research. This will
not take much time, but will have a huge impact. Visit www.
hematology.org/Advocacy for information about how you can
help raise awareness about the need for increased funding
or contact ASH Legislative Advocacy Manager Tracy Roades
([email protected]) with any questions.
110
ASH Clinical News
experienced investigators to
train the next generation of
biomedical researchers.
My competing renewal R01
grant was scored just outside
the funding payline; this
loss of funding threatened to
dismantle a well-established
hematology research program
on the pathobiology of red
blood cells.
trainees with medical degrees
it has led to a brain drain in
the clinic; fellowship trainees
no longer seem to consider
careers at the translational
interface of bench and
bedside.
How are you adjusting
your research practice?
The most ambitious and
out-of-the-box projects no
longer seem a good fit for
NIH’s grant applications and
increasingly conservative
review process, which now
seems to require multiple
published papers and
extensive preliminary data.
The net effect of decreased
funding, for me, is that it has
become harder to plan ahead
financially as I hire personnel
and trainees that deserve
multi-year commitments.
Athar Chishti, PhD, Tufts
University, Medford, MA
How does NIH funding
affect your career?
NIH funding is the
cornerstone of the American
biomedical enterprise,
and is particularly critical
for investigators working
at the research-intensive
medical institutions, where
the principal investigator’s
salary recovery and graduate
students’ stipends are
supported by such grants.
A lapse of funding leads to
the loss of experienced staff
and reagents, thus adversely
affecting the ability of
Why did you apply for an
ASH Bridge Grant?
Becaus Hو H