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2005 ANNUAL REPORT BURROUGHS WELLCOME FUND HISTORICAL TIMELINE 1950’s 1955 - BWF established as a corporate foundation in Tuckahoe, New York 1955 - William N. Creasy appointed first president and board chair 1959 - First advisory committee appointed, on clinical pharmacology 1959 - First competitive award program launched—Clinical Pharmacology Scholar Award program 1970’s 1970 - BWF moves to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (with Burroughs Wellcome Co.) 1971 - Dr. George H. Hitchings becomes president 1974 - Iris B. Evans appointed first executive director 1978 - BWF grantmaking reaches $1 million annually 1979 - Toxicology Scholar Award program launched 1980’s 1981 - Martha Peck appointed executive director 1981 - Molecular Parasitology Scholar Award program launched 1983 - Scholar Award in Pharmacoepidemiology program launched 1985 - Immunopharmacology of Allergic Diseases Awards launched 1987 - Hitchings Awards for Innovative Methods in Drug Design and Discovery launched 1988 - First BWF newsletter (FOCUS) published 1988 - BWF President George H. Hitchings receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Dr. Gertrude Elion and Sir James Black 1990’s 1990 - Dr. Howard J. Schaeffer appointed president 1991 - First female member appointed to the board Dr. Gertrude Elion 1991 - First non-Wellcome representative appointed to the board Dr. Samuel Katz 1993 - BWF receives $400 million endowment from The Wellcome Trust 1993 - BWF becomes independent private foundation 1994 - Dr. Enriqueta Bond, becomes first full-time president 1994 - Dr. Schaeffer appointed board chair 1994 - Career Awards in the Biomedical Sciences program launched 1995 - BWF conducts first terrain mapping (strategic planning) exercise 1995 - Interfaces in Science program launched 1995 - Molecular Pathogenic Mycology Awards program launched 1996 - New Initiatives in Malaria Research Awards program launched 1996 - Student Science Enrichment Program launched 1996 - International Malaria Genome Project launched, with BWF support 1996 - First BWF website launched 1996 - North Carolina Institute for Education Policymakers formalized 1997 - Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational Research program launched 1997 - First directory of BWF award recipients published 1998 - BWF-Wellcome Trust Infectious Diseases Collaboration launched 1998 - Ground broken for permanent BWF headquarters building (April 17) 1999 - North Carolina Grassroots Science Museum Collaborative formalized 2000’s 2000 - Dedication ceremony for BWF’s new home (May 24-25) 2000 - BWF conducts second terrain mapping exercise, which focuses core programs on five areas: basic biomedical sciences, infectious diseases, interfaces in science, translational research, and science education 2000 - Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease program launched 2001 - Career Awards at the Scientific Interface program launched 2003 - North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center formalized 2005 - Health Research Alliance formalized, with BWF support 2005 - BWF conducts third terrain mapping exercise 2005 - BWF celebrates 50th anniversary 2005 Annual Report TABLE OF CONTENTS The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is an independent private HISTORY ................................................................................................................2 foundation dedicated to PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ........................................................................................4 advancing the medical sciences BASIC BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES ........................................................................10 by supporting research and INTERFACES IN SCIENCE ....................................................................................14 other scientific and educational TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH ..............................................................................18 INFECTIOUS DISEASES ........................................................................................24 activities. SCIENCE EDUCATION ........................................................................................28 REPORT ON FINANCE ........................................................................................34 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ....................................................................................35 GRANTS INDEX ..................................................................................................42 INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS ......................................................................65 PROGRAM APPLICATION DEADLINES ..............................................................65 ADVISORY COMMITTEES ..................................................................................68 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ......................................................................................72 STAFF ..................................................................................................................74 CONTACT INFORMATION FOR MAJOR PROGRAMS ......................................77 2005 Annual Report Burroughs Wellcome Fund Headquarters 21 T.W. Alexander Drive Research Triangle Park, North Carolina During its years as a corporate foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund had shared space with Burroughs Wellcome Co., first in New York and then in North Carolina. After the Fund became a private independent foundation in 1994, it rented space in the Research Triangle area. In 1996, the BWF Board of Directors began discussions about building a freestanding headquarters that would firmly establish the Fund as an independent entity and provide meeting space for convening award recipients, as well as the Fund’s board and advisory committees. Perkins and Will of Charlotte, North Carolina, the selected architecture firm, designed the Fund’s new headquarters. In 1998, the Fund broke ground and a year later the staff moved into its permanent home. 1 2005 Annual Report HISTORY HISTORY OF THE BURROUGHS BWF has an endowment of $700 WELLCOME FUND million and awards $30 million in grants annually in the United The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is an independent private foundation dedicated to States and Canada. We advancing the biomedical sciences by supporting research and other scientific and educational activities. Within this broad mission, we seek to accomplish two primary channel our financial support goals—to help scientists early in their careers develop as independent investigators, through five competitive and to advance fields in the basic biomedical sciences that are undervalued or in need of particular encouragement. peer-reviewed award programs. BWF has an endowment of $700 million and awards approximately $30 million in grants annually in the United States and Canada. We channel our financial support primarily through competitive peer-reviewed award programs, which encompass five major categories—basic biomedical sciences, infectious diseases, interfaces in science, translational research, and science education. BWF makes grants primarily to degree-granting institutions on behalf of individual researchers, who must be nominated by their institutions. To complement these competitive award programs, we also make grants to nonprofit organizations conducting activities intended to improve the general environment for science. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund was founded in 1955 as the corporate foundation of Burroughs Wellcome Co., the U.S. branch of the Wellcome pharmaceutical enterprise, based in the United Kingdom. The Wellcome enterprise was started in 1880 by two young American pharmacists, Henry Wellcome and Silas Burroughs, who had moved to London to manufacture and sell “compressed medicines”—that is, pills—which the pair believed could replace the potions and powders of the day. Their firm prospered. After Silas Burroughs died in 1895, Henry Wellcome directed the growth of the company into an international network with subsidiaries in numerous countries on several continents. As the business grew, Henry Wellcome held firm to his strong belief that research was fundamental to the development of excellent pharmaceutical products—a belief he put into practice by establishing the industry’s first research laboratories. When Henry Wellcome died in 1936, his will vested all of the corporate shares in a new organization—the Wellcome Trust—devoted to supporting research in medicine and allied sciences and to maintaining museums and libraries dedicated to these fields. Over the decades, the Trust grew to become the world’s largest charitable foundation devoted exclusively to the biomedical sciences. In 1955, leaders at the Wellcome Trust and Burroughs Wellcome Co.-USA envisioned an extension of this effort in the United States—and so was born the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. In 1993, after nearly four decades as a corporate foundation, BWF recieved a $400 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to become a foundation fully independent of the Trust and the Burroughs Wellcome Co. Though we are today an independent philanthropy, our history and joint program activities allow us to maintain productive ties with the Wellcome Trust. 2005 Annual Report 2 HISTORY BWF is committed to the belief With this increase in assets resulting from the Wellcome Trust endowment, BWF has been able to play a larger role in funding biomedical research, including that fostering research by the extending our support into Canada. In carrying out this work, BWF is governed by best and brightest scientists a Board of Directors composed of distinguished scientists and business leaders,