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Pressroom:
Press Room
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2004
For Further Information:
Mary-Ellen Shay
617-355-6420
mary.shay@childrens.harvard.edu
Children's Hospital Boston Researcher George Daley Awarded First-Ever NIH Director's Pioneer Award
Five year grant allows for expansion of stem cell research
George Q. Daley, M.D., Ph.d., associate director of the Stem Cell/Developmental Biology research program at Children's Hospital Boston and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, was named a recipient of the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award.

The NIH choose Daley-and eight other researchers from across the country-to receive funding of $500,000 per year for the next five years. The Pioneer Award program was developed in January 2004 to aid individual scientists who have demonstrated exceptional creative methods in various biomedical research and who were deemed to have the potential to make major breakthroughs in the improvement of human health.
Long regarded as one of the nation's leading stem cell researchers, Daley focuses on the use of human embryonic stem cells to replace problematic genes that lead to diseases such as sickle cell anemia. The use of human embryonic stem cells would make it unnecessary for children with cancers and diseases of the blood system to rely on hard-to-find bone marrow donors. The Children's stem cell research team is working on developing new lines of embryonic stem cells that are unique to each patient and can be used to repair defective genes throughout the body.

Daley has also done extensive research on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the blood caused by genetically defective stem cells. His findings of a specific protein causing CML led to the development of Gleevac, a highly effective drug for treating CML.

Daley, who joined the Children's Hospital's Division of Hematology/Oncology in 2003, received his bachelor's degree in biology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was chief resident from 1994-1995. Daley was a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and was a clinical/research fellow in Hematology/Oncology in the joint program sponsored by Children's, Brigham and Women's and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He was named associate professor at Harvard Medical School in 2002. Daley is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences and the Leuukemia and Lymphoma Society of America Scholar Award.

Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults for over 100 years. More than 500 scientists, including seven members of the National Academy of Sciences, nine members of the Institute of Medicine and nine members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 300-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. It is also the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the hospital visit: www.childrenshospital.org.

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