Two CHOP Researchers Receive NIH Funding for “High Risk, High Reward” Research

Two researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) are among a group of researchers that will receive financial support through the National Institutes of Health’s Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. The program is designed to support highly innovative, “outside the box” research proposals that may struggle to receive funding in the traditional peer-review process despite their potential.

Mustafa Mir, PhD, and Peter S. Choi, PhD Mustafa Mir, PhD, an assistant professor in the Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine at CHOP and the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, received a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. With this award, Mir intends to develop new live imaging technologies so that he can follow the dynamics of the protein molecules that regulate gene expression within live developing embryos. This work will help reveal the fundamental principles of how genes are switched on and off and may ultimately lead to novel therapies to correct aberrant gene expression in various diseases.

Peter S. Choi, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at CHOP, also received a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Choi’s project focuses on the regulation of splicing by chromatin, the complex structures of DNA and proteins that helps control the flow of genetic information. This study could reveal important information about processes involved in gene expression and shed a light into the causes and consequences of splicing dysregulation that lead to cancer.

Click here to read the full announcement from the NIH.