The New Innovator Award is part of the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research program and supports exceptionally creative early career investigators proposing innovative, high-impact research.

Elizabeth Crouch, MD, PhD, received NIH Director's New Innovator Award foer her project "Vascular Mural Cells in the Development of the Blood Brain Barrier." Part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the award supports exceptionally creative early career investigators who propose innovative, high-impact projects. The award funds her work with $1.5 million in direct costs split into two multi-year segments. See the full list of 2023 Awardees. 

Dr. Crouch's research hopes to answer fundamental questions that remain about the origins, heterogeneity, and functions of brain vascular cells. By defining mechanisms of vascular development in the brain, we can then understand and ameliorate neonatal neurovascular diseases which currently lack any treatment strategies.