Bar Harbor, Maine—Jennifer Trowbridge, Ph.D., a Jackson Laboratory cancer researcher, has received a four-year, $400,000 grant from The Ellison Medical Foundation as a New Scholar in Aging.
Jennifer Trowbridge, Ph.D.Trowbridge studies factors that control self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells, which give rise to all the various kinds of normal blood cells, investigating whether these same factors control leukemia stem cells.
"Receiving this prestigious award has sparked a new area of research in my laboratory," Trowbridge says, "studying the epigenetic changes that drive aging of the hematopoietic (blood) system. Abnormalities of the blood system, including immune deficiency, anemia and increased chance of developing myeloid leukemia, are major health concerns of our aging population."
The New Scholar awards recognize newly independent investigators, still in their first three years after their postdoctoral training, who show outstanding promise in aging research. According to the Foundation, these awards "contribute to a safety net that allows bright young scientists to staff their laboratories, collect preliminary data, and organize research programs of sufficient momentum to obtain ongoing support from other sources."
Trowbridge joined The Jackson Laboratory in September 2012 following a postdoctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital in Boston.
"Through our research on the basic mechanisms of aging," she says, "we’re working to uncover new therapeutic strategies to treat these conditions. Without the support of The Ellison Medical Foundation, we would not have the resources to pursue this important work. Being a newcomer to this field, it is inspiring and encouraging to have been selected to be a part of the outstanding aging research community supported by The Ellison Medical Foundation."
The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a new genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs a total staff of more than 1,500. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.