The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF), an independent private foundation dedicated to advancing the biomedical sciences, has selected two UT Southwestern investigators to receive five-year awards that begin this year.

Dr. Rodney Infante, Assistant Professor in the Center for Human Nutrition and of Internal Medicine, will receive support through the Fund’s Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS) program, while Dr. John Schoggins, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, was selected through the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) program. The BWF’s 2019 awardees will be recognized Oct. 2-3 at the Fund’s office in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The CAMS program was established in 2007 and has now dispensed $102.9 million to support the work of nearly 150 scientists across the country. Dr. Infante is the sixth UTSW faculty member so recognized.

The BWF has supported research in infectious disease since 1981, funding modern molecular approaches to understanding what have been called the great neglected diseases – malaria, the pathogenic fungi, and human parasites – that primarily affect people in underdeveloped countries. In 2000, the PATH track turned its attention to the larger issues of human-pathogen interactions in these infectious diseases and others, opening the door for funding work in bacterial and viral diseases. In all, UTSW has had 11 investigators selected within this enlarged scope.

BWF, which is governed by a board of distinguished scientists and business leaders, was founded in 1955 as the corporate foundation of the pharmaceutical firm Burroughs Wellcome Co. In 1993, a gift from the Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom enabled BWF to become fully independent from the company, which was acquired two years later by Glaxo.

The Fund’s primary goals are to help early career scientists develop as independent investigators and to advance basic biomedical sciences fields that are undervalued or in need of particular encouragement.