By supporting the activities of scholars at the intersection of HPS and the life sciences, the McDonnell Initiative has provided many with the chance to grow their research programs in new and exciting directions.

successful grants related to regeneration working groups (2019-present)

Kathryn Maxson Jones

(2024) Lisa Jardine Grant of the Royal Society (UK), in support of Sea Change: The Squid Giant Axon and the Transformation of Neurobiology the 20th Century.

s. andrew inkpen

(2023) ($120,000 CAN) J.E.A. Crake Humanities Projects. Partners in Inquiry: An on-campus, intergenerational Mount Allison University-Early Learning Pilot. (Co-Applicants at Mount Allison: Susan Andrews, Kiera Galway, Dani Inkpen, Laura Landon, Lucy MacDonald)

(2023) ($2,900 CAN) Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada (CEWIL Canada) through the CEWIL Innovation Hub (iHub), Tackling Wicked Problems in Rural Community Contexts: Piloting WIL Partnerships for Incoming Faculty of Arts Undergraduates. (Co-Applicants at Mount Allison: Toni Roberts, Susan Andrews, Andrew Nurse)

(2019 – 2020) “Health Across Living Systems,” Brandon University New Faculty Research Grant, Brandon University, to Andrew Inkpen.

Lucie Laplane

(2026-2029) “Cell lineages: questioning central assumptions of cell biology”, ANR PRC (460k€) (3 teams, one of philosophy, one of mathematics, one of experimental biologists)

(2025-2027) “How does cancer kill? An interdisciplinary approach to cancer treatment”, ARC PJA2 (70k€, 2 teams, one of philosophy one of experimental biology in hematology). 

(2022-2027) “Philosophy of Cancer Biology” working group, Cancéropôle IDF (107k€) (11 researchers including experimental biologists, modelers, and MD PhD)

(2021) Emergence Canceropole grant: “Philosophical and experimental analysis of clonal dynamics.” PI: Lucie Laplane. Partners: Leïla Perié (Curie); Stephane de Botton and Christophe Willekens (Gustave Roussy Hospital).

Lucie laplane and Michel vervoort

Laplane and Vervoort are the project leaders for the Stem Cell Regeneration working group.

(2020 – 2023) ANR-PRC 2019, “Philosophy, Phylogeny, and Biology of Stem Cells,” Acronyme: STEM, Partners: IHPST, IJM (M. Vervoort and E. Gazave lab), Hospital Saint-Louis (A. Puissant lab), PI: L. Laplane.

Michel Vervoort

(2020 – 2021) ARC grant 2019: Defining molecular and cellular crossroads between Cancer and Regeneration: Insights from Platynereis, an emerging cell and developmental biology model. PIs: M. Vervoort and E. Gazave.

(2020 – 2021) Ligue national contre le cancer 2019: Defining molecular and cellular crossroads between Cancer and Regeneration: Insights from Platynereis, an emerging cell and developmental biology model. PIs: M. Vervoort and E. Gazave.

Successful grants resulting from McDonnell Initiative Pilot program (2016-2019)

Jane Maienschein

Maienschein is the co-Director, along with Kate MacCord, of the McDonnell Initiative.

(2023-2027) NSF, with Mary Elting, Saad Bhamla, Fred Chang, Scot Coyle, Aaron Dinner, and Jerry Honts, “Collaborative Research: Understanding and Controlling Force Generation by a Centrin-based Contractile System.”

(2022-2025) NSF, co-PI with Fred Chang (UCSF), “Collaborative Research: Regulation of Nuclear Size.”

(2019 – 2022) NSF, with Mary Elting, Saad Bhamia, and Fred Chang, “Collaborative Research: CYBORG cells: Modular integration of synthetic organelles into living cells.”

(2019) NSF, Ideas Lab on Synthetic Cells.

Karl Matlin and Jane Maienschein

Matlin is a professor emeritus at University of Chicago. He led the microscopy component of the initiative during the pilot grant.

(2016 – 2020) Webster Foundation, “History and Philosophy of Science at the MBL.”

Beckett Sterner

Sterner is a professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences. He led the taxonomy component of the initiative during the pilot grant.

(2018 – 2021) NSF, with Nico Franz, Manfred Laubichler, Liz Lerman, Joeri Witteveen, “Productive Ambiguity in Classification.

(2019 – 2021) ASU, with Nico Franz, “Biodiversity Data Science Initiative.”

(2019) ASU, with Nico Franz, “Workshop: Closing the Feedback Loop between Decision-Making and Biodiversity.”

Hanna Worliczek

Worliczek is a research fellow at the University of Vienna. She was a McDonnell Scholar in 2019.

(2019 – 2021) Gerda Henkel Foundation. Two year research fellowship.