Funding Opportunities
Merkin Institute Grants
The Merkin Institute for Transformative Technologies seeks to stimulate the next generation of breakthrough life sciences technologies. Ó³»´«Ã½ Members and Affiliate Investigators with innovative project proposals are encouraged to apply for funding support. An ideal Merkin Institute project proposal is innovative, truly transformative, and led by an investigator with a passion for changing the world with their vision for the proposed technology.
Examples of transformative technologies include (but are not limited to): Delivery of macromolecules into cells in vivo, next-generation genome editing methods, novel encoded chemical library technologies, new screening capabilities, innovative imaging technologies, new approaches to target identification and mechanism-of-action elucidation, and creative ways to manipulate cell states in a durable, non-genetic manner.
Proposed Merkin Institute projects cannot already be supported by current or anticipated funding.
Email Emily Botelho ebotelho@broadinstitute.org with any questions.
Shark Tank
The Shark Tank is designed for trainees to develop and communicate innovative research proposals. The Shark Tank funds collaborative research proposals by teams of trainees (graduate students and postdocs), staff scientists, and faculty members, ideally spanning multiple research groups within the Ó³»´«Ã½ community, broadly defined. Only trainees can serve as principal investigators on a proposal, but staff scientists and faculty are welcome to participate in projects. Selected proposals will receive up to $200,000 in total costs for one year. As part of the selection process, the teams will pitch their ideas to a panel of CBTS leaders during a CBTS Shark Tank meeting. See previous request for proposals (RFP) .
2017 Awardees
In its first year, the CBTS Shark Tank received 19 complete proposals from teams spanning four institutions (Ó³»´«Ã½, Harvard, MIT, MGH) and five Ó³»´«Ã½ programs. Nine proposals, ranging from basic research to developing novel technologies and therapeutic applications, were selected by a review committee representing all four institutions.
| Cameron Myhrvold, Kayla Barnes | Improved Cas13a/C2c2 diagnostics for viral diarrheal illness |
| Kalie Mix | Cytosolic Delivery of Antibodies |
| David Reshef | Deep-Learning Guided Directed Evolution of Proteins |
| JP Maianti | Suppression of pain transmission using genome editing agents |
| Xin Jin | Engineering TASyR to Interrogate the Neuronal Connectome |
| Jicong Cao | XOR-seq: Target-Enrichment Strategy for Whole Genome Sequencing |
| Xin Jin | Exploiting lipid metabolism dependency to target brain metastasis |
| David Freeman | Marked for encapsulation: investigating RNautophagy/DNautophagy for target-specific degradation |
| Emily Ricq | Membrane anchoring of the native human prion protein |
Published Papers & News Coverage of Awarded Shark Tank Projects
| Cameron Myhrvold | |
| Kalie Mix |
2018 Awardees
| Andre Richters | Lysosome Targeting Chimeras (LYTACs) - Hijacking Lysosomal Pathways for Target-Specific Degradation |
| Fatma Elzahraa-Eid | Deep learning guided directed evolution for cell-specific AAV capsid design |
| Gregory Newby | The Omni-Mouse: A Platform to Drive in Vivo Genome Editing |
| Sachini Siriwardena, Dhanushka Godage, Sophia Lai | Proximity-driven targeted protein methylation using chimeric small molecules |
| Sharif Tabebordbar | Developing a platform for engineering and in vivo selection of potent adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid variants for functional tissue-specific transduction across species |
| Sonia Vallabh | Small-molecule suppression of gene expression by upstream open reading frame inclusion |
| Yilong Zou | Growing old: induced-aging in human pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids to model late-onset diseases |
| Andrew Payne, Sam Rodriques | Click chemistry inactivation of transgene expression |
| Max Jan | Mapping the unexplored immune cell signaling universe of lenalidomide-inducible chimeric antigen receptors |
