To help raise awareness of the chronic pain epidemic that impacts the lives of approximately 20 precent of Americans, the Science Philanthropy Alliance and Rita Allen Foundation have collaborated on a new blog post as part of “Pain Awareness Month.” So many big questions regarding pain are unanswered. Elizabeth Christopherson,…
The Rita Allen Foundation joins a coalition of 22 donors today in announcing Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information with an infusion of more than a half-billion dollars over the next five years. Press Forward will…
Pioneering early-career biomedical scientists selected for $3.15 million in research investments. The Rita Allen Foundation has selected its 2023 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, celebrating nine early-career leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health. The selected Scholars…
Photo: Courtesy Yuan-Xiang Tao How can we help the ones we love, when we see them suffering? Yuan-Xiang Tao was motivated to dedicate his career to chronic pain research and developing novel therapeutics early in his youth, after watching his father battle liver cancer. Tao’s father passed away in…
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how do you create an image of real-time interactions inside the nervous system? “For the brain and spinal cord, that's a little challenging. Our goal is to shed light on this ‘black box.’ For a very long time, we simply…
The Rita Allen Foundation and the Center for Cooperative Media are pleased to announce recipients of the Cross-field Collaboration Civic Science Journalism pilot initiative to seed and support new civic science journalism efforts and relationships. This new initiative stems from pioneering work that the Foundation and partners have been leading to create a culture of…
The Civic Science Fellows program is announcing opportunities to become a Civic Science Fellow host partner for our next cohort, which will begin in March 2024. Innovative organizations are invited to apply to the Civic Science Fellows program to build engagement around anticipatory, emerging topics in science and technology, where…
Elissa Hallem wasn’t always immersed in the world of parasitic roundworms. In fact, she spent much of her early research career studying Drosophila, the common fruit fly. Inspired to pursue research after participating in Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth program, Hallem began volunteering in Larry Zipursky’s…
Writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Elizabeth Christopherson and Sam Gill, presidents of the Rita Allen Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation, respectively, call for science philanthropists to help create lasting public confidence in science by working to address sources of mistrust, “including the lack of diverse perspectives and connection…
Maitreya Dunham gained research experience in many different fields as a student, from genetics to immunology to cancer, but one mighty model organism stuck with her as she set up her own lab to study experimental evolution and genetics: Saccharomyces cerevisiae. “That was one thing about the cancer world…