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Updated: December 30, 2020

JAX’s 2020 funding haul exceeds $100M

COURTESY / JACKSON LABORATORY Jackson Laboratory, headquartered in Bar Harbor, received over $100 million across more than 200 awards in 2020.
By Staff

The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor was awarded over $100 million in new federal, peer-reviewed foundation and other grant funding in 2020.

The 200-plus awards covered a broad range of the independent nonprofit biomedical research institution’s focus areas, including Alzheimer’s disease and aging, respiratory conditions and COVID-19, cancer, rare disease and cardiovascular diseases, according to a news release.

Examples of JAX’s 2020 funding and achievements include the following.

Respiratory conditions and COVID-19

• $1.1 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as a supplement to an $11 million grant from the institute awarded in 2019, to focus on understanding the specific mechanisms of coronavirus infection and provide a foundation for therapy and vaccine development and refinement.

• Gifts from Tailwinds Foundation and Progress Charitable Foundation to develop mouse strains that reflect human genetic diversity for research into COVID-19 infection.

COURTESY / NIAID-RML
This electron microscope image shows virus particles of SARS-CoV-2 emerging from the surface of cells in a COVID-19 patient, in a test that was cultured at the JAX lab.

JAX provided COVID-19 testing services for over 80 partner institutions in Maine and Connecticut. In addition, as COVID-19 impacted research activities around the world, JAX mounted a rescue effort through cryopreservation services to help scientists facing shutdowns and ensure research continuity.

Alzheimer’s disease and aging research

• JAX is home to one of only six National Institute on Aging-funded Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, focused on investigating the mechanisms of mammalian aging. The center recently received funding renewal of $5.3 million over the next five years to continue its work.

• The National Institutes of Health awarded a three-year, $6.3 million contract to support the engineering and distribution of mutant stem cell lines useful for research into Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Cancer research

• A $2.5 million grant from the Mark Foundation will fund research into the genetics that underlie responses to immunotherapies, using genetically diverse JAX mouse models.

• The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center had its National Cancer Institute designation renewed for another five years. The center is one of seven basic research centers in the United States with this designation.

• The National Cancer Institute awarded a five-year, $1.9 million grant for research into tumor microenvironments. Specifically, the work seeks to identify strategies to improve breast cancer treatment efficacy, overcome therapy resistance and prevent metastasis.

• The National Cancer Institute awarded an exploratory $1.2 million grant to fund development of new genomic approaches and tools for cancer genome research. 

Rare disease

• In order to accelerate therapy development for the estimated 25 million people living with a rare disease in the U.S., JAX’s Center for Precision Genetics received a five-year, $10.6 million grant to develop a large-scale, multidisciplinary research program to find treatments for rare genetic diseases. 

• A JAX team published results of 2019 study that sent JAX’s Mighty Mice (genetically engineered mice that lack myostatin and therefore display increased muscle mass) to space to provide insights into the role myostatin plays in muscle and bone loss, which is suspected to have implications for future astronauts, the elderly or people who are bed-ridden, and those with diseases and conditions associated with muscle-wasting. The findings have implications for possible therapeutic strategies.

• A seven-year, $2.8 million Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke supports investigation of gene mutations that cause diseases of the peripheral nervous system.

Cardiovascular diseases

• A four-year National Institutes of Health award of approximately $3 million supports genomic studies related to cardiovascular disease. 

• JAX is participating in an international research collaboration, funded by a five-year, $6.5 million award from the Paris-based Leducq Foundation, to investigate immune regulation of cardiac fibrosis.

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