Michael Constantinides receives 2021 Baxter Foundation Young Investigator Award
The award will support the lab’s investigation of early-life immunity to prevent neonatal infections.
July 16, 2021
LA JOLLA, CA—Scripps Research immunologist Michael Constantinides, PhD, has been named winner of the 2021 Young Investigator Award from the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation.
The award will support Constantinides in the development of novel therapies for neonatal sepsis, a serious blood infection that claims the lives of nearly 400,000 infants each year.
The award is designed to provide seed funding for promising new investigators as they begin their careers and develop their independent research programs. These early career stages are critical to long-term success, requiring a level of support that will advance scientific projects to the point where the investigator can compete for other sources of funding.
“The Baxter Foundation’s generous support will enable my laboratory to advance our understanding of neonatal sepsis and develop novel prophylactic treatments for this devastating disease,” says Constantinides, assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology.
With expertise spanning both chemistry and immunology, Constantinides brings state-of-the-art approaches in microbiology and genetics to the study of specific T cells that contribute to immunity in early life. After discovering that these T cells can respond to Staphylococcus bacteria, which commonly underlie neonatal sepsis, the lab is generating T cell-based therapeutics that could protect against infection during the most vulnerable stages of life.
The Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation has a long history of supporting Scripps Research that stretches back to the early 90s. This support has included not just the acceleration of early career faculty, but also the education of students at the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. In addition to the Young Investigator Award, the foundation’s 2021 grant will also support two Scripps Research graduate fellows in the coming year.
The Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation was established to advance charitable, scientific, and educational purposes, primarily at medical and scientific schools of higher learning in California. Delia Baxter established the Donald E. Baxter Foundation in 1959 in memory of her husband, Donald, a distinguished physician, engineer, and scientist. The Foundation was renamed upon Delia Baxter's death in 1982 to the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation, in honor of her memory.
For more information, contact press@scripps.edu