discovery SEED FUNDING:
Where Breakthroughs Begin How donor-supported seed funding at Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation is changing the future of women’s health. At Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation, we believe the most transformative discoveries begin with bold questions that challenge conventional thinking. Exploring concepts with the potential to improve lives of women around the world requires financial investment long before major research grant funding. Donor-supported seed funding provides the critical first investment that gives researchers the resources to generate evidence, and prove what’s possible.
Impact in Action Protecting Babies Before Birth In 2019, seed funding from The Hearst Foundations enabled Stephen Emery, MD, to investigate groundbreaking treatment for fetal aqueductal stenosis, a condition that causes dangerous fluid buildup around a developing baby’s brain. His team explored whether a tiny shunt could safely be placed during pregnancy to relieve pressure before birth to reduce the risk of lifelong neurological damage. That early investment allowed researchers to: • Demonstrate the procedure could be performed safely • Refine the surgical technique • Generate the preliminary data needed to compete for larger grants
The First Step Toward Discovery Why does seed funding matter? It enables researchers to: Pursue bold, high-potential ideas that do not qualify for traditional funding yet Generate the preliminary data needed to compete for major national grants Explore innovative solutions to complex women’s health challenges Accelerate promising discoveries from the laboratory to patient care The First Step Toward Discovery Without these early investments, many of tomorrow’s breakthroughs would never leave the drawing board.
Why does seed funding matter?
The results were extraordinary. In 2025, Dr. Emery and collaborators received a $2.3 million National Institutes of Health Blueprint MedTech grant to continue advancing this minimally invasive fetal therapy. What began as a seed-funded idea is now moving closer to becoming a life-changing treatment for babies and families.
Small Investments. Extraordinary Impact. It enables researchers to:
Improving Heart Health After Pregnancy
History shows that some of the world’s most important medical advances began with relatively modest early investments. A few examples: • Pursue bold, high-potential ideas that do not
Seed funding also helped launch the impactful work of Janet Catov, PhD, to better understand and reduce long-term cardiovascular disease after pregnancy.
qualify funding yet • Early support from the March of Dimes helped layfor thetraditional scientific foundation for the development of the polio vaccine. • Generate the preliminary data needed to • A small exploratory research grant led tocompete the discovery of Thermus for major national grants aquaticus, making PCR technology—and today’s genetic testing and genome • Explore innovative solutions to complex sequencing—possible. women’s health challenges • Early NIH small business funding supported the development of a tremorcanceling spoon that has improved independence for living discoveries with • Acceleratepeople promising from the movement disorders. laboratory to patient care
These innovations have one thing in common: someone invested before success was guaranteed. Without these early investments, many of
tomorrow’s breakthroughs would never leave the drawing board.
Support from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation enabled her team to: • Develop an innovative Heart Health Doula program • Study cardiovascular risks following pregnancy complications • Design new approaches to postpartum care that address health disparities Those early discoveries helped secure more than $14 million in National Institutes of Health funding, expanding the research into multi-site clinical trials with the potential to reshape maternal cardiovascular care nationwide.
Will You Help Power the Next Breakthrough? Every breakthrough begins because someone believed in an idea before the rest of the world did. Is that person you? To learn how you can support seed funding at MageeWomens Research Institute & Foundation, please contact: Julie Throckmorton Senior Grant Writer, Magee-Womens Foundation 412-641-8978 throckmortonja@mwri.magee.edu or Brenda Psotka, CFRE Executive Director, Magee-Womens Foundation 412-908-3496 psotkaba@mwri.magee.edu
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