The vision of the Boston University (BU) BIRCWH program is to promote interdisciplinary women’s health research to improve health quality across the life course. The mission is to develop lifelong independent investigators with vitality who will contribute to the flourishing national network in women’s health, health outcomes, and sex differences research across the translational science continuum. The BU BIRCWH program will focus on the cross-cutting themes of health outcomes across all populations; addiction science; maternal and child health; and sex influences on health based on our extensive institutional expertise. Innovations of our program that will accelerate Scholar’s success include: 1) Our deep commitment to health quality in partnership with BU’s teaching hospital Boston Medical Center, the largest safety net hospital in New England, giving Scholars access to a unique patient population; 2) Integration of our Scholars into our BU Women’s Health Research Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC) to foster interdisciplinary team science and leadership skills; 3) Access to cutting-edge data science expertise and technologies to advance women’s health research; 4) Our 38 senior and near-peer mentors from 6 different schools and 15 departments from across BU with diverse translational (T0-4), disciplinary, and life course expertise spanning all NIH women’s health priority areas; 5) Our matrix mentoring, coaching, and sponsorship model to promote Scholar vitality essential to achieving and sustaining independent research careers; 6) Education in communication strategies to enhance visibility and policy impact; and 7) Our hosting an annual Boston BIRCWH Women’s Health Research Symposium to strengthen the regional BIRCWH Scholar network and to accelerate broader collaborations by inviting national BIRCWH Scholars focused on health quality to form a ‘hub’ of women’s health researchers. Our BU BIRCWH program will support 3 Scholars per year who will participate in a 2-year curriculum with the following core components: a) Completion of a scholarly research project under the supervision of a multi-disciplinary mentoring team; b) Participation in our tailored BU BIRCWH seminar series focused on core women’s health topics and our cross-cutting themes; c) Vitality strengthening activities through our BU BIRCWH learning community; d) Participation in our BU Women’s Health Research ARC to promote team science; and e) Optional electives that fit within their individual development plans. We are intentionally partnering with the BU Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) to ensure adequate exposure to translational science skill building, shared programming for early-career research faculty, and robust program evaluation. In summary, our long-term goals are to increase the number and quality of highly trained basic, clinical, translational, population, and community engagement scientists who become leaders in women’s health research; support Scholar vitality on their path to career independence; and disseminate research findings to transform women’s health research and accelerate health quality.

Up to $908K

2030-08-31

health research

Botanical Drug for Chemotherapy Induced Nausea and Vomiting

open

NCCIH - National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

PROJECT SUMMARY Nausea and vomiting are among the most distressing side effects of chemotherapy. This unmet need is acute in the adult and pediatric populations undergoing chemotherapy and is the reason why up to 50% of patients refuse subsequent chemotherapy treatment. Despite the widespread use of the 5-HT3 and NK-1 receptor antagonist antiemetics, chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) continues to be reported by up to 70% of adult patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy agents. These synthetic antiemetics are expensive and burdened with significant side effects. Additionally, an off-label anti-psychotic olanzapine is finding frequent use as a rescue medication despite its serious adverse side effects. There is a high unmet need for improved products to treat CINV without adverse side effects. To meet this unmet medical need, we are developing a botanical drug based on ginger which has been used for centuries, from Aisa to Egypt and North America to manage gastrointestinal stress. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop a highly purified and standardized ginger product, Zindol, as a botanical drug product for the treatment of CINV. In Phase I, we plan to develop and manufacture an improved, highly purified active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of Zingiber Officinale as well as a formulated drug product (FDP) in gelatin capsules, characterize these products, conduct stability studies and establish release criteria. We will also perform an innovative in vitro nausea assays to define and control manufacturing. In Phase II, we will scale manufacturing, conduct IND-enabling in vivo toxicology and pharmacology GLP studies, meet with the FDA and establish the regulatory pathway for conducting clinical trials. In Phase III, we plan to conduct clinical trials on Zindol® for the treatment of nausea and emesis in adults undergoing chemotherapy, and license the botanical drug with strategic corporate partners to address the $3.4B marketplace.

Up to $416K

2026-08-31

health research

Boulevard Houses Senior Center

open

Wayside Out-Reach Development (WORD), Inc.

Senior Centers, Programs, and Enhancements

Up to $75K

Rolling

Community Development

Boundary Avenue Water Improvements

open

Town of Rock Hall

Boundary Avenue Water Improvements

Up to $590K

Rolling

environment

Boundary Avenue Water Improvements

open

Town of Rock Hall

Boundary Avenue Water Improvements

Up to $590K

Rolling

environment

Boundless Theatre Company Inc.

open

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

Boundless Theatre Company Inc.

Up to $24K

Rolling

Arts & Culture

Bountiful Childrens Foundation Grants

open

Bountiful Childrens Foundation

Bountiful Childrens Foundation is an active grantmaking foundation based in Springville, UT. Focus: general. Contact the foundation directly for current funding opportunities.

$15K – $154K

Rolling

general

Bowdoin Place Utility Box Art

open

Bowdoin Place Condos

The Bowdoin Place community group will use artwork to beautify utility boxes located at Fremont Ave N and N. 39th St to enhance the visual appeal of the utility boxes that are a frequent target of graffiti and vandalism. A community celebration will be held in October 2017 to view the completed utility box artwork.

Up to $5K

Rolling

Community DevelopmentEquity & Access

Bowers Elementary School

open

Town of Manchester

Priority

Up to $21.8M

Rolling

Education

Bowers Elementary School

open

Town Of Manchester

Priority

Up to $21.8M

Rolling

Education

BOWiD: a tool for lifelong tracking C. elegans individuals using stochastically labelled landmarks

open

NIA - National Institute on Aging

Project Summary Caenorhabditis elegans, a well-studied nematode, is an important model to study the genetic mechanisms that regulate aging, longevity, and health. Most aging studies in this model organism measure the survival of a population through time, and factors that extend or shorten lifespan are observed by a shift of these survival curves. An important limitation of this type of analysis, is that individual animals cannot be tracked, and thus the identity of each individual is lost in each day where survival is scored. Tracing the aging trajectories of individual animals within a population is necessary to better understand how early life events affect the rate of aging and longevity. In addition, populations tend to show very variable lifespans even though they are genetically identical, and are exposed to the exact same conditions. Better understanding this variability and how different interventions can modulate longevity differently in different animals can only be possible if animal identity can be detected. Here, we propose to develop a new system, BOWiD, which provides a readable and stable barcode for each animal in a population, and thus allows extracting the identity of each worm. Barcodes will be imprinted in animals by turning on a fluorescent protein in a subset of cells. Reporters will be activated randomly by the Cre-lox recombination system. To accomplish this, we will focus on: 1) Developing robust components needed for BOWiD, including inducible promoters for Cre, identify robust cellular landmarks and labeling approaches, and developing machine learning pipelines to read barcodes, 2) Developing and implementing BOWiD for animals cultured on traditional agar plates, and analyze aging trajectories, and 3) Developing and implementing BOWiD for animals cultured in microfluidic devices, where trajectories of the structure of aging neurons will be analyzed, in a high-resolution setup.

Up to $581K

2028-12-31

health research