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ASH Directions
ASH Awards Bridge Grants
to Help Sustain Blood
Disease Research
Twelve investigators will receive ASH
Bridge Grants for promising blood
disease research that could otherwise
not be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a result of
severe federal funding restrictions.
The NIH is the world’s top
provider of medical research grants;
however, a decade of flat funding
followed by across-the-board spending cuts has drastically reduced the
agency’s budget. As a result, NIH
is no longer able to fund as many
high-scoring proposals as in the past.
This has led to vigorous competition
for NIH research project grant (R01)
awards and is preventing meritorious
projects from receiving vital financial
support.
In an effort to preserve hematology research projects amid this
uncertain funding environment, in
2012 ASH committed $9 million
in Society funds to create the ASH
Bridge Grant program. The oneyear, $150,000 awards are designed
to “bridge” recipients between NIH
grants, allowing researchers to
continue to fund their critical work
while obtaining additional data to
strengthen their grant applications.
Since the beginning of the program,
ASH has funded 74 researchers.
Research projects supported by
ASH’s latest bridge grants encompass
a wide range of basic, clinical, and
translational hematology research.
Funded projects include exploring the
role of a protein in malaria infection,
the molecular genetics of a congenital
bone marrow disease, and a treatment
for infant leukemia.
The recipients are:
• Alison A. Bertuch, MD, PhD,
Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston, TX
• Athar Chishti, PhD, Tufts University, Medford, MA
• Carolyn A. Felix, MD, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,
Philadelphia, PA
• Eric F. Grabowski, MD, ScD,
Massachusetts General Hospital
and Harvard Medical School,
ASH Collaborates with College of
American Pathologists to Develop
Guideline for Acute Leukemia Workup
ASH has been working with the College of American
Pathologists (CAP) since 2011 on an evidence-based
guideline on the workup of acute leukemia (both adult
and pediatric). The guideline, scheduled to be released
in early 2016, will provide recommendations about what
clinical information, including results from pathology
tests, should be obtained in a newly diagnosed patient
with acute leukemia. The guideline will also address
questions related to the performance of lab testing, such
as when to cryopreserve a bone marrow sample.
After reviewing and synthesizing the evidence, the
expert panel agreed upon draft recommendations that
were shared during a public comment period in August.
(Take a look at the comments on the ASH website by
scanning the QR code below.)
Following the open comment period, the guideline
authors will consider all feedback to finalize the recommendations. The final recommendations
will be included in the guideline manuscript and will be available at no cost.
ASHClinicalNews.org
Boston, MA
• Hervé Falet, PhD, Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
• Izidore S. Lossos, MD, University of Miami, Miami, FL
• Jean-Francois M. Rual, PhD,
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI
• Mamta Gupta, PhD, Mayo
Clinic, New York, NY
• Peter Kurre, MD, Oregon Health
& Science University, Portland,
OR
• Silke Paust, PhD, Baylor College
of Medicine, Houston, TX
• Takahiro Maeda, MD, PhD,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Boston, MA
• Wolfgang Bergmeier, PhD,
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Visit www.hematology.org/bridgegrantrecipients to view the complete
list of ASH Bridge Grant recipients.
To learn more about ASH’s Bridge
Grant Program, visit www.hematology.org/bridgegrants.
Listen to the Latest The Hematologist
Podcast; Now Available on iTunes
Adam Cuker, MD, MS, of the University of Pennsylvania
and contributing editor of The Hematologist, and Thomas
Ortel, MD, PhD, of Duke University School of Medicine, discuss the design, outcomes, and limitations of the
BRIDGE study in the latest podcast from The Hematologist.
During this podcast, Dr. Cuker has a conversation
with Dr. Ortel about perioperative bridging through the
lens of the BRIDGE trial data, which were published by
Dr. Ortel and colleagues in the New England Journal of
Medicine. They discuss how its results may inform clinical
practice and treatment of atrial fibrillation and other disorders. ASH Clinical News also reported on the outcome
of the BRIDGE trial in the July issue.
The podcasts are available to stream or download on
ASH’s SoundCloud page by visiting www.soundcloud.
com/ash_hematology or scanning the QR code below.
Listeners can also download the SoundCloud mobile
app from the Google Play or App Store to listen on their
mobile device. In addition, they are now
available on iTunes; search “ASH_hematology” in iTunes or in the Podcasts app, and
click “Subscribe.”
ASH Webinars
ASH regularly hosts educational
webinars that feature presentations
by experts in the field, cover current
informa ѥ