Kyle Cromer, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the UCSF Broad Stem Cell Center, has been awarded the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.
Part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program (HRHR), the New Innovator Award recognizes early-career investigators of exceptional creativity who pursue bold, unconventional projects with the potential for transformative impact. The award will provide $1.5 million in funding over a five-year period.
Cromer’s project, “Engineering enhanced erythropoiesis for red blood cell disorders,” aims to advance genetic and synthetic biology tools to transform therapies for hemoglobinopathies and other hematopoietic disorders.
“This funding will allow us to push the boundaries of CRISPR-based genome editing and cell engineering to address long-standing challenges in treating red blood cell disorders,” said Cromer. “Our goal is to bridge synthetic biology and clinical practice to make next-generation therapies both effective and accessible.”
Cromer joined UCSF in 2022 after training at Virginia Tech, Yale, Harvard, and Stanford. His lab focuses on the intersection of genome editing and hematopoietic stem cell biology, with an emphasis on designing clinically viable approaches to red blood cell engineering.
His groundbreaking research has also been supported by multiple honors and awards, including the Stanford Bio-X Star Mentor Award, the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Career Development Award, the UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research New Frontier Research Award, the American Society of Hematology Junior Faculty Scholar Award, the Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed Award for Innovation, and the UCSF Innovation Ventures Catalyst Award.
To learn more about the award, visit: NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards (DP2) and
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