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MGH stem cell researcher receives funding
from Stowers Medical Institute
Missouri philanthropists support
work of Chad Cowan, PhD, investigator with MGH Center for Regenerative
Medicine and Harvard Stem Cell Institute
BOSTON - June 23, 2006 - Chad Cowan, PhD, a member of the
Center
for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital
(MGH) and the Harvard
Stem Cell Institute, has been named an assistant investigator
by the Stowers Medical Institute (SMI) of Cambridge, Mass.
Cowan is the second principal investigator appointed by SMI, a
medical research organization founded and funded by Kansas City
philanthropists Jim and Virginia Stowers. SMI's support of Cowan's
work is similar to the support provided to several MGH researchers
by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Cowan will remain at MGH
but will become an employee of SMI, which will provide more than
$4.75 million in funding for Cowan's lab over the next four years.
Cowan has earned widespread recognition for his groundbreaking
work using early, or embryonic, stem cells to understand the contributions
of environmental and genetic factors to the development of disease.
"I am excited to begin working with the Stowers Medical Institute,"
said Cowan. "Jim and Virginia Stowers are true champions of
biomedical research, and I am honored to receive their support.
By combining the resources of SMI, MGH, and the Harvard Stem Cell
Institute, my research team can move forward rapidly with some very
exciting science."
Jim Stowers explained the decision to fund Cowan's research by
saying, "Dr. Cowan is a tremendously talented young scientist.
His work in early stem cell research has the potential to shed light
on a variety of diseases that have eluded effective treatments or
cures. Virginia and I are pleased to support his important research
at Massachusetts General Hospital."
"This gift will foster a premier young scientist in a field
brimming with potential," says David Scadden, MD, director
of the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine and co-director of the
Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "It is through the generosity
and vision of the Stowers, MGH and the Innovation Fund that we can
accelerate discovery and shape this potential into a reality for
patients. Chad is an exceptional addition to a team of talented,
dedicated scientists in the Center for Regenerative Medicine and
the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and I am deeply grateful to Jim
and Virginia Stowers for enabling him to join us."
Stowers founded the multi-billion-dollar American Century Companies
in 1958. Inspired by personal experiences with cancer, he and Mrs.
Stowers founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research (SIMR)
in Kansas City in 1994. Repeated efforts to ban early stem cell
research in the state of Missouri motivated the Stowers to create
and endow with their personal funds a new entity, the Stowers Medical
Institute (SMI), in 2005 to fund early stem cell research outside
of the state. The Stowers' funding of SMI is in addition to the
$2 billion combined endowments they have created for SIMR.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original
and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH
conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United
States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and
major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer,
computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human
genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative
medicine, transplantation biology and photomedicine. MGH and Brigham
and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare
HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery
system.
Media Contact: Sue
McGreevey, MGH Public Affairs
Physician Referral Service: 1-800-388-4644
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