The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Early Independence Award, established in 2010, is part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program managed by the Common Fund. The award provides an opportunity for exceptional junior scientists to skip the traditional postdoc and start an independent research career at a supportive institution directly following the completion of their graduate degree or clinical training. The awards provide $250,000 in direct costs per year for up to 5 years. Based on their project proposals, the following individuals applied for and received the 2020 awards:
- Adam L. Bailey, MD, PhD, University of Utah: “Determinants of Yellow Fever Pathogenesis in Humans”
- Sally L. Baxter, MD, MSc, University of California San Diego: “Multimodal Health Information Technology Innovations for Precision Management of Glaucoma”
- Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center: “Targeting Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential Using Human Genetics”
- Hyunghoon (Hoon) Cho, PhD, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard: “Computational Methods for Enhancing Privacy in Biomedical Data Sharing”
- Moisés Expósito-Alonso, PhD, Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University: “Predicting and Controlling Polygenic Health Traits Using Probabilistic Models and Evolution-Inspired Gene Editing”
- Jacob A. George, PhD, University of Utah: “Patient-Centered Rehabilitation and Dexterous Assistive Devices for Stroke Patients Using Bionic Exoskeletons Controlled by Noninvasive Electromyography”
- Sarah J. Hill, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School: “Dissecting the Interaction Between DNA Damage Repair Defects and the Tumor Microenvironment”
- Chi-Min Ho (Mimi), PhD, Columbia University: “Molecular Basis of Effector Protein Export in the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum”
- Anna S. Nam, MD, Weill Cornell Medicine, “Defining Malignant Hematopoiesis Via Single-Cell Multiomics”
- Ijeoma Opara, PhD, MSW, MPH, Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare: “Understanding the Role of Neighborhoods on Urban Youths Substance Use and Mental Health: A Community-Based Substance Abuse Prevention Project”
- Andrew B. Stergachis, MD, PhD, University of Washington: “Investigating the Contribution of Noncoding Genetic Variation to Rare Disorders”
- Jotham Suez, MSc, PhD, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health: “The Role of Non-Nutritive Sweeteners-Microbiome Interactions in the Pathogenesis of Metabolic Syndrome”
- Waring “Buck” Trible, PhD, Harvard University: “The Molecular Basis of Caste Development and Evolution in Ants.”
