Awards, Honors, and Grants

Raina Fichorova, MD, PhD	Shadab Rahman, PhD, MPH	Scott Lovitch, MD, PhD

The Brigham Research Institute (BRI) announced the winners of the ninth “Shark Tank” competition, a biannual event featuring researchers and innovator from the Brigham who pitch their projects to an audience of internal reviewers and philanthropic supporters. Inspired by the hit ABC show Shark Tank, the event awards funding to projects with the potential to make an impact in one or more of the following domains: biomedical research, healthcare delivery, digital innovation, the generation of new companies/projects/services, cost savings, care quality and provider burnout.

The Health and Innovation Fund, sponsored by BRI and the Brigham’s Health and Technology Subcommittee, developed two funding tracks for award recipients. 

Track A award recipients receive $50,000 in funding from BRI to cover basic, clinical, digital and translation projects that show strong potential to bring an idea from “bench to bedside.”

The recipients of this year’s Track A awards are:

• Raina Fichorova, MD, PhD, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology: “Medicinal Vaginal Lactobacillus Cocktail”
• Shadab Rahman, PhD, MPH, of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders: “Shortening the Duration of Induced Labor & Delivery by Changing the Start Time of Induction”

Track B award recipients receive $25,000 from the Schlager family, funding early stage digital projects with commercial potential.

The recipient of this year’s Track B award is:

• Scott Lovitch, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology: “Development of Virtual Teaching Sets for Digital Pathology Education”