McDonnell Foundation Announces 2009 Grants for the 21st Century Science Initiative Awards

$14 Million in Grants Continue the Commitment to Founder's Vision

ST. LOUIS, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Officers of the James S. McDonnell Foundation (http://www.jsmf.org) today announced more than $14 million in grants in their ongoing program, the 21^st Century Science Initiative. Founded in 1950 by the late aerospace pioneer and founder of what would become the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, James S. McDonnell believed that science and technology gives mankind the power to shape knowledge for the future while improving our lives. "Mr. Mac's" vision continues to be realized through the research these grants are supporting. Since the inception of the program in 2000, more than $148 million in funding has been awarded.

“Support of research and applications of research findings to important problems remains a pivotal role for private philanthropy and for the McDonnell Foundation. The foundation is committed to the ideal that having a diversity of private and public funders helps ensure that the most creative work will obtain needed support”

In 2009, the 21^st Century Science Initiative funded research in three program areas. Support for the program area Understanding Human Cognition was provided through targeted awards and through Collaborative Activity Awards. Two other program areas supported research primarily through a competitive research awards process. Brain Cancer Research supports research leading to new knowledge that will eventually lead to increased rates of survival and improve functional recovery for individuals with brain cancer. Studying Complex Systems supports scholarship and research directed toward the development of theoretical and mathematical tools that can be applied to the study of complex, adaptive, nonlinear systems.

“Support of research and applications of research findings to important problems remains a pivotal role for private philanthropy and for the McDonnell Foundation. The foundation is committed to the ideal that having a diversity of private and public funders helps ensure that the most creative work will obtain needed support,” said McDonnell Foundation Vice President, Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick.

The McDonnell Foundation's 2009 21^st Century Science Initiative Awards are:

Research Awards: Studying Complex Systems

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Principal Investigator: Damon M. Centola, $259,000 over three years.
Experimental investigations into the effects of network structure on social contagions

McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Principal Investigator: Jonathan Dushoff, $448,671 over five years.
Exploring how infectious diseases, beliefs, and behaviors interact on a social network

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Principal Investigator: Andrew P. Dobson, $445,730 over five years.
Allometry of parasites and food-webs

The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Principal Investigator: Luis M. Bettencourt, $437,131 over three years.
Towards a predictive theory of social organization and dynamics in cities

Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Principal Investigator: Eytan Ruppin, $449,000 over three years.
Community modeling of bacterial metabolic interactions

University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
Principal Investigator: Andrew W. Park, $448,249 over four years.
Transient pathogen evolution in heterogeneous host populations

University of California-Merced, Merced, California
Principal Investigator: Ajay Gopinathan, $301,702 over five years.
Biological transport in complex and dynamic environments

Research Awards: Researching Brain Cancer

Children's Medical Research Institute, Sydney, Australia
Principal Investigator: Megan Chircop, $164,000 over one year.
Dynamin as a new drug target for the treatment of glioblastoma

Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio
Principal Investigator: Jeremy N. Rich, $450,000 over five years.
Microenvironmental reprogramming of glioma cells

Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
Principal Investigator: John A. Kessler, $146,969 over one year.
A new approach to the treatment of brain tumors

University of California – San Diego La Jolla, California
Principal Investigator: Santosh Kesari, $424,476 over five years.
Mechanisms of sensitivity to PDGFR inhibitors in human gliomas

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Principal Investigator: Yue Xiong, $449,732 over three years.
Mechanism and mouse model for IDHI-Mediated suppression of human secondary gliomas

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
Principal Investigator: Luis F. Parada, $90,000 over one year.
Large-scale screening for therapeutic targets in a mouse model of glioma

Collaborative Awards: Researching Brain Cancer

Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger Inc., Baltimore, Maryland
Principal Investigator: John J. Laterra, $1,484,812 over two years.
Regulatory mechanisms and therapeutic targeting of brain cancer "Stem Cells"

Special Initiative Awards: Researching Brain Cancer

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Principal Investigator: Forest M. White, $240,000 over two years.
Integrative systems-level approach to glioblastoma targeted therapy

Collaborative Awards: Understanding Human Cognition

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
Principal Investigator: John M. Allman, $2,773,395 over four years.
Neurobiology of the Von Economo Neurons and related circuits

Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute - Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Principal Investigators: Laurel J. Buxbaum and Myrna Schwartz, $1,798,835 over three years.
Prospective control of action: Computational principles, neural substrates, and clinical implications

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Principal Investigator: Stephen J. Hanson, $1,061,305 over three years.
Accessing Brain Interactivity II

Special Initiative Awards: Understanding Human Cognition

Bangor University, Wales, United Kingdom
Principal Investigator: Robert Rafal, $161,989 over three years.
The Visceral Mind: A hands on course in the neuroanatomy of cognition

The Rockefeller University, New York, New York
Principal Investigator: Charles D. Gilbert, $362,728 over five years.
Computational models of recurrent cortical networks

University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
Principal Investigator: Marcela Peña, $1,200,930 over three years.
Summer School In Cognitive Science, Neuroscience and Education

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Principal Investigator: Terence D. Sanger, $450,000 over four years.
High speed simulation and prediction of the effect of brain injury on development