The application period will run from Sept. 23 – Dec. 6, 2024 at 1 p.m. EST.
The First Look Awards are part of the MLSC’s Women’s Health Initiative. This program is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School. The goal of this grant program is to support early-stage exploratory translational research at Massachusetts research institutions that furthers our understanding of sex and gender differences especially for diseases or conditions that affect women solely, disproportionately, or differentially. The First Look Awards align with the Connors Center First.In.Women Precision Medicine Platform, which advances the inclusion and specific investigation of women in the development and utilization of new drugs, devices and digital therapeutics in order to produce sex-specific and sex-differentiating knowledge about newly developed treatments.
Up to $250,000 is available for the program, and we anticipate making five awards of up to $50,000 to Massachusetts-based women’s health researchers.
Please note that the submission system only allows one active application per grant program at a time for each user account. It is possible to have an active application across multiple programs, as well as submit applications for the same program sequentially.
Massachusetts recognizes there has been a lack of development in novel solutions to treat conditions that solely or disproportionately affect women or have a different presentation between genders. This impacts not only patients, but also employers and the healthcare system. The consequences are profound, with women more likely to have adverse drug reactions than men, and the lack of effective therapies results in reduced quality of life. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center aims to support and incentivize translational project teams developing novel solutions in this area of need.
Learn more about the 2021 2022, 2023, and 2024 First Look awardees, including the principal investigator and the innovative projects.
“Innovation is Massachusetts’ calling card now and into the future. The Mass Leads Act doubles down on our leadership opportunities in areas like women’s health to advance not only our life sciences sector, but also our health care system and broader economy.”
– Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll
“This funding will allow for the establishment of a state-of-the art center to study lactation science. The Lactation Lab will encompass both a basic science laboratory, with protocols optimized for breastmilk assays, and a clinical research space designed for the needs of breastfeeding women and their infants.”
– Sarbattama Sen, MD, Attending Neonatologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Olaris is a precision diagnostics company that is on a mission to revolutionize how diseases are diagnosed and treated. By leveraging their CEREBRO platform (Comprehensive Early Responsive Evaluation of Biomarkers Related to Outcomes), which combines metabolomics and machine learning, they are able to harness the power of the body’s own communication system to discover and develop their pipeline of myOLARIS precision diagnostics.