Chemistry’s Crawford receives $2.5 million grant from NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Yale chemist Jason Crawford a five-year, $2.5 million grant that will support his study of gut-dwelling bacteria that play a role in the development of colorectal cancer.

Crawford, who joined Yale last year as assistant professor of chemistry and of microbial pathogenesis, researches biosynthetic gene clusters that are believed to generate biologically active small molecules. The NIH New Innovator Award specifically will support research into bacterial small molecules found in the gut that serve as immunomodulators and colorectal cancer-causing genotoxins, Crawford said.

On Sept. 30, NIH announced $123 million in grants for more than 78 recipients. Of these, 41 received New Innovators Awards, a category for early-career scientists pursuing highly promising lines of inquiry.

Francis S. Collins, director of NIH, said the grants are intended to encourage scientists to take risks on research with “the potential for high rewards.”

A member of the Chemical Biology Institute at Yale’s West Campus, Crawford operates his lab in the Institute’s Molecular Innovations Center.