For Immediate Release
Yvonne M. Psaila
Director of Marketing & Communications
Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology
+ 1 970-262-2676
yvonnep@keystonesymposia.org
Laina King
Director, Diversity in Life Science Programs
Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology
+ 1 970-262-2669
lainak@keystonesymposia.org
Keystone Symposia Announces Grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for an Advanced Life
Sciences Training Program
SILVERTHORNE, CO – April 16, 2013 – Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology is
pleased to announce it has received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for a unique
Advanced Life Sciences Training Program.
The grant will provide funding for a two-day conference in Denver in July 2013 for all five classes of
participants in the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program since its inception in 2008. The Fellows
Program is a high-level life science research mentoring and positioning program for postdoctoral
fellows and other early-career investigators committed to diversity. Through involvement in the
Keystone Symposia program development process, Fellows receive invaluable mentoring and access
to the inner workings of the life sciences community. To date, 18 individuals have graduated from the
Program, which is funded by a multi-year MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers) grant from the
National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH. Five participants are currently mid-way
through the 2012-2013 Program.
The summer training conference will provide a face-to-face opportunity equipping participants with
advanced grant-writing skills to increase the rate of grant acquisition for early-career scientists. It will
also provide them with strategies and tools to confront diversity-related challenges and issues in the
workplace. A variety of experts will be tapped from around the country to provide the training.
Dr. Laina King, Director of Diversity in Life Science Programs at Keystone Symposia, expressed her
appreciation for the grant: “The support from the Foundation allows us to take the Fellows Program one
step further and give participants formal and focused training in the areas that are proving most
challenging for early-career investigators. We are deeply grateful for the commitment the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation is demonstrating to life science diversity in making such a program possible.”
Dr. Elizabeth Boylan, Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, commented: “I am very
pleased that we were able to make this grant as part of our higher-education portfolio focusing on
professional advancement for underrepresented populations. We value the opportunity to assist earlycareer scientists in the acquisition of key professional skills, and look forward to learning about
outcomes vis-à-vis standard career parameters as well as engagement with diversity matters on their
home campuses and in their professional societies.”
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This is the second grant for Keystone Symposia from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Some of
Keystone Symposia’s earliest diversity initiatives were launched with the help of a Sloan grant received
in April 2008. Subsequent efforts have been funded with the help of the MARC grant as well as
corporate support from Amgen, Biogen Idec and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.
About Keystone Symposia
Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization,
has been conducting internationally renowned, open scientific conferences since 1972 and has been
headquartered in Summit County, Colorado since 1990, when the organization left the University of
California at Los Angeles. Annually, Keystone Symposia holds more than 50 conferences involving
more than 12,000 scientists from around the world and on topics ranging from cancer and
cardiovascular disease to neuroscience and plant biology. Registration fees are supplemented by
support from corporate, foundation and individual donors as well as government grants.
More information on Keystone Symposia can be found at www.keystonesymposia.org, and further
details on its diversity initiatives and Fellows Program can be found at
www.keystonesymposia.org/diversity and www.keystonesymposia.org/fellows respectively.
About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grantmaking institution based in New
York City. Established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer
of General Motors, the Foundation makes grants in support of original research and education in
science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economic performance. See www.sloan.org for
more information.
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