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LabLife Launches LabGiving, Online Funding Program to Connect Donors and Scientists

LabGiving enables individuals and organizations to donate to scientific causes they care about, such as cancer or diabetes research. Through the LabGiving website, donors can easily publicize small awards (typically $500 to $10,000) and review applications. The service is free to both donors and scientists, and 100% of donations through LabGiving go directly to recipient labs.

Scientists can apply for awards through a streamlined, online application process that can take less than an hour to complete. Sera Thornton, scientist at the MIT Boyer Lab, called the application "short and painless." The Boyer Lab, which studies stem cell biology, recently received a LabGiving award to purchase shared lab equipment.

LabGiving and other online charitable programs, such as Kiva and DonorsChoose.org, are changing the way the public interacts with causes they care about. The structure of such programs enables donors to learn about the background and needs of funding applicants, while reporting tools encourage fiscal accountability of funding recipients. This model also provides an efficient alternative to more complex institutional funding processes.

The first LabGiving donors include Addgene, an organization promoting scientific resource and information sharing, and the Fan Family Foundation, a foundation supporting cancer research. In aggregate, donors have committed at least $100,000 through the end of 2010. Current funding opportunities are listed on the LabGiving website at www.lablife.org/labgiving.

LabLife anticipates that LabGiving will attract a strong community of scientists and donors interested in advancing research. Sapna Sharma, scientist at the Tufts University Heldwein Virology Lab, remarked, "Through noble gestures such as the LabGiving award program, LabLife continues to support and encourage our research endeavors."

About LabLife

LabLife, a software company founded by life scientists and software engineers in 2009, develops web tools that make research and lab management more efficient. LabLife has over 12,000 registered users and 50,000 unique visitors per month. Thousands of scientists use LabLife each day to access and share product information, data, publications, and protocols.

LabLife
Aileen Wu, 617-395-6600
aileenwu@lablife.org
www.lablife.org