The North Carolina-based Burroughs Wellcome Fund has announced the 2017 recipients of its Career Awards for Medical Scientists.

Through the program, grants totaling $8.4 million were awarded to twelve physician-scientists, each of whom will receive $700,000 over five years. Now in its eleventh year, the program helps young physician-scientists transition into full-time careers as biomedical research scientists and tenured faculty members by providing financial support to recipients in their last couple of years in a mentored position and first few years in an independent position.

This year's recipients are Vijay Garud Bhoj and Kara Noelle Maxwell of the University of Pennsylvania; Lindsay Catherine Burrage of Baylor College of Medicine; Aaron Foster Carlin of the University of California, San Diego; Alejandro Chavez, Kent William Mouw, and Zuzana Tothova of Harvard Medical School; Craig Brian Wilen of Washington University in St. Louis, Tamia Alisha Harris-Tryon of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center-Dallas; Whitney Elizabeth Harrington and Anoop Patel of the University of Washington; and Tamer Sallam of the University of California, Los Angeles.

"The declining population of physician-scientists has been an area of focus for the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for the past decade," said Burroughs Wellcome Fund president John Burris. "The complexity of the physician-scientist career path has increased as biomedical science has evolved. Our funding provides dollars for research as well as for protecting time spent for conducting research."