The National Institutes of Health (NIH) selected New York Genome Center’s Hemali Phatnani, PhD, as a recipient of its prestigious Director’s Transformative Research Award. With this five-year, $8.5M grant, Dr. Phatnani will take an unconventional (but potentially groundbreaking) approach to ALS research. To learn more about Dr. Phatnani and her work, visit Center for Genomics of Neurodegenerative Disease.
Amidst rapidly deteriorating conditions at Rikers Island jail in NY, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Less Is More Act. The bill ends jail time for most nonviolent parole violations and will help release several hundred people from city jails. Grantee partners Katal Center, A Little Piece of Light, Women’s Community Justice Association, the Fortune Society and more have intensified their … Continued
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, a grantee partner of The Tow Foundation, Spectrum NY1 put on a one-hour TV special that highlighted the voices of students, faculty and alumni. For a segment-by-segment breakdown of the special, click here.
This month, longtime grantee partner Friends of Karen teamed up with ONE15 Brooklyn Marina to provide sailing lessons for children facing life-threatening illnesses and their families. “I could kind of forget about everything and just enjoy the day,” said Mariola Bagan, whose eight-year-old son Jacob participated in the event. “I even got to steer!” added Jacob. To learn … Continued
This year’s list of Pulitzer Prize winners included two grantee partners. For its year-long, far-reaching investigation into police dog bites, The Marshall Project was honored in the national reporting category. In the music category, the Claire and Leonard Tow Professor in Music at Brooklyn College, Tania León, won for her original composition, “Stride.”
Last month, Rehabilitation Through the Arts launched Unlocked, a moving short film that follows six formerly incarcerated people who participated in the arts while in prison. Watch their journeys unfold and here from more alumni voices at: Unlockedvoices.org.
Three grantee partners, JustLeadershipUSA, College & Communities Fellowship, and Bard Prison Initiative teamed up to launch The Bard Microcollege for Just Community Leadership, the nation’s first tuition-free college dedicated to advocacy, arts and sciences. To complete its simple, human-focused application, visit: Bard Microcollege in New York City
For its March 28 issue, The New York Times Magazine embedded a reporter with the New York Genome Center to shadow lab technicians and interview an array of scientists. Using the COVID-19 virus as an example, the story follows the incredible advancements that labs like NYGC have made in the arena of DNA sequencing. To … Continued
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing February 24 on “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” The hearing included expert testimony from Emily Bell, the Leonard Tow professor of journalism and director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia. You can read her testimony here or watch it … Continued
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced the establishment of The Tow Center for Developmental Oncology (TCDO). Led by biologist and pediatric oncologist Dr. Alex Kentsis (pitcured right), TCDO will bring together researchers and physicians from across MSK to transform both our understanding and treatment of early-onset cancers. To read the official press release, visit: MEMORIAL SLOAN … Continued