Asst. Biomedical Enginnering Prof. Kevin Janes is one of 55 scientists nationwide to win the New Innovator Award. Photo courtesy University Relations.

The National Institute of Health awarded its New Innovator Award Sept. 24 to Asst. Biomedical Engineering Prof. Kevin Janes. Janes, one of 55 scientists to receive the award, will use the $1.5 million grant to research the behavior of ErbB2, a cancer-causing protein.

The funding from NIH will be used to support Janes’ research, which uses both computational and scientific approaches to study basic processes involved in cancer initiation and progression.
“Because the funding is very generous, the award will allow us to propose more aggressive experiments than we would otherwise consider,” Janes said, noting that his lab will be using a new computational method he developed to analyze irregularities in the behavior of cells that express ErbB2.

“When ErbB2 is activated in breast cells, we observe cancer-like behavior, but only in a fraction of the cell population,” Janes said. “I would like to find out what is special about this fraction to help understand why some women develop ErbB2-driven cancers and why only a fraction of these will respond to ErbB2-targeted therapies.”

Janes’ research is an extension of projects he completed while at Harvard’s medical school.

“I developed the new computational-experimental method [at Harvard], called ‘stochastic profiling,’ that serves as the basis for the current project,” Janes said.

NIH funding will support Janes during a period of five years, which he said will allow him to cover a number of research projects. The length of the award also will grant him more flexibility in his research, because he will not have to apply constantly for grant funding, he said.

This year, the New Innovator Award program — which focuses on “innovative, high-impact ideas” ­— is entering its third year, said Jeremy Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

“Congress is very enthusiastic about this program,” Berg said, noting that the federal government has helped fund the project for the past three years. This year, 10 of the awards given out came from economic recovery act funds, with a total award increase from 30 to 55 recipients since 2008. Over time, the NIH hopes to steadily increase the number of awards given out each year.

The highly competitive award usually is given to only 10 percent of its more than 500 applicants, and primarily recognizes research professionals early in their careers. Berg said scientists are only eligible for the award if they are within 10 years of receiving their doctorates and have never before received an NIH grant.