Dowell is an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and will use her grant to advance research into why closely related people respond differently to drug treatments. Her work has the potential to assess more accurately the efficacy of specific treatments for individual patients.
“The rapid drop in the cost of genome sequencing promises to usher in an era of personalized medicine, where genome information will be utilized in determining appropriate medical treatment,” she wrote in her grant proposal.
The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program will support the research of early-career biomedical investigators whose work has a direct impact on human health. It is the result of an innovative agreement among the Boettcher Foundation, the Webb-Waring Foundation for Biomedical Research and the University of Colorado, but scientists from other Colorado research institutions qualify for similar grants.
The program’s goals are to help Colorado researchers become more competitive, keep high-quality research in the state, and contribute to Colorado’s fast-growing biomedical industry.
Dowell will share, with two other CU researchers, a $700,000 pool of grant money that will fund up to three years of their research starting July 1. They are among 65 researchers from all four CU campuses who applied for the grants.