Developmental Disabilities
Despite landmark advances in medical research and treatment in recent years, many children still suffer from congenital mental and developmental disabilities. The Fund since its inception has supported initiatives on behalf of an underserved, largely unrecognized segment of this population: children who are both mentally disabled and emotionally disturbed. One of Serena Merck's legacies is The Fund's bedrock commitment to help these children lead productive lives and to alleviate the hardship and anguish experienced by their parents.
John Merck Scholars Program
The Fund in 1990 established the John Merck Scholars Program in the Biology of Developmental Disabilities in Children. This program supports research into the underlying neurobiology of developmental disabilities and associated cognitive impairments. Its goal is to gain insights that eventually might lead to breakthroughs in prevention and treatment.
Every year, a panel of eminent scientists selects three John Merck Scholars from a national pool of candidates nominated by leading medical education institutions. Each scholar receives a four-year research grant of $300,000. The Fund hopes these grants will encourage gifted young scientists to pursue careers that could improve the lives of developmentally disabled and emotionally disturbed children.
See list of John Merck Scholars
2010 Grants
John Merck Scholars Program in the Biology
of Developmental Disabilities in Children
|
$75,000 |
| To support research on dissecting the function of macaque prefrontal face patches by John Merck Scholar Doris Tsao. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research on the role of tuberous sclerosis proteins in axon development by John Merck Scholar Mustafa Sahin. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research on functional dissection of the central cholinergic system in cognition by John Merck Scholar Adam Kepecs. |
|
$10,000 |
| To support research into the regulation of excitatory synaptogenesis by GABA in the developing brain by John Merck Scholar finalist Cagla Eroglu. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research on the development of magnitude reasoning: normative and atypical trajectories by John Merck Scholar Stella Lourenco. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research into functional analyses of a neural circuit regulating olfactory learning by John Merck Scholar Yun Zhang. |
|
$60,000 |
| To support the 2010 John Merck Summer Instiutte, which encourages young scientists to work toward the identification, intervention and prevention of developmental disabilities. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research on activity-dependent regulation of GABAergic synapses and neural circuit plasticity by John Merck Scholar Yingxi Lin. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research into the exploratory behaviors of at-risk infants by John Merck Scholar Laura Schulz. |
|
$75,000 |
| To support research into how selective attention deficits contribute to language processing disorders by John Merck Scholar Lisa Sanders. |
|
$10,000 |
| To support research on the origins of mathematics in the developing brain by John Merck Scholar finalist Jessica Cantlon. |
|
$10,000 |
| To support research on the influence of neurodevelopmental disorders on synaptic organization and circuit function by John Merck Scholar finalist Daniel Kerschensteiner. |
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