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Discovering New Knowledge
We live in an era of discovery. Each day, scientists bring us closer to understanding fundamental questions about human life. How does the brain process information and store knowledge? How do mutations in key genes cause disease? How do cells communicate? The challenge of solving these and other questions—as well as the promise of what those answers might yield—drives the quest for knowledge at the heart of our work at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
HHMI, a nonprofit medical research organization that ranks as one of the nation’s largest philanthropies, plays a powerful role in advancing biomedical research and science education in the United States. The Institute spent $730 million for research and distributed $101 million in grant support for science education in fiscal year 2009.
HHMI Investigators
HHMI’s flagship program in biomedical research rests on the conviction that scientists of exceptional talent, commitment, and imagination will make fundamental biological discoveries for the betterment of human health if they receive the resources, time, and freedom to pursue challenging questions. Approximately 350 investigators, selected through rigorous national competitions, currently include 14 Nobel Prize winners and 131 members of the National Academy of Sciences. Hughes laboratories, found at more than 70 U.S. universities, research institutes, medical schools, and affiliated hospitals, employ nearly 700 postdocs and provide training opportunities for more than 1,000 graduate students each year.
Collaborative Innovation Awards
Launched in 2008, this four-year pilot program enables selected Hughes investigators to join with scientists outside HHMI to undertake projects that are new and so large in scope that they require a team covering a range of fields. Eight projects support research by 33 scientists from 15 institutions in the United States and 1 in Chile.
Early Career Scientists
In 2009, HHMI identified 50 of the nation’s most promising scientists to receive support at a critical early stage of their careers. HHMI funding over a six-year appointment provides them with the freedom to pursue their boldest research ideas without having to worry about obtaining grants to fund those experiments.
Janelia Farm Research Campus
The Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, which opened in 2006, further extends HHMI’s commitment to research and discovery. Resident and visiting scientists at Janelia Farm are probing fundamental biomedical questions best addressed through a collaborative, interdisciplinary culture. The initial research focus is identification of general principles that govern how information is processed by neuronal circuits and development of imaging technologies and computational methods for image analysis. Researchers at Janelia Farm—including the most senior group leaders—engage in active bench science and work in small teams that cross disciplinary boundaries to bring chemists, physicists, computational scientists, and engineers into close collaboration with biologists. Janelia Farm also hosts a program of specialized conferences intended to encourage rapid advances and scientific collaborations.
International TB/HIV Initiative
In 2009, a groundbreaking partnership was formed between HHMI and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, to establish an international research center. The center will focus on making major scientific contributions to the worldwide effort to control the devastating coepidemic of tuberculosis and HIV and on training a new cadre of scientists in Africa.
Grants for Science Education
The HHMI grants program fuses teaching and research, reflecting the Institute’s commitment to inspiring and educating a new generation of scientists. HHMI funds initiatives with the power to transform undergraduate and graduate education by engaging students in discovery research. We seek opportunities to create connections across a continuum of learning that extends from the primary grades through high school and beyond and includes activities to increase diversity in the scientific workforce and promote scientific literacy in society. The Cool Science portal on hhmi.org features innovative resources—produced by HHMI and its grantees—that are changing the way science is taught. HHMI also supports highly creative international scientists in diverse geographic regions and research areas and invests in resources that benefit the broader scientific community.
