|
|
$6 Million National Institutes of Health Grant Funds Joint Programs at UI, ISU and BSU
News from:
University of Idaho
Boise State University
Idaho State University
Oct. 22, 2001
A $6 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health will establish a Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network at the University of Idaho, Idaho State University and Boise State University.
The grant will allow the three Idaho universities to enhance research opportunities for scientists and students, said UI’s Michael Laskowski, who led the team that won the grant. Laskowski is UI director of the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho Medical Education Program.
The BRIN grant is a natural for the three Idaho universities because it capitalizes on each institution’s strengths and builds on them, Laskowski said. The themes of the statewide effort are medical genomics, with an emphasis on human health, and understanding how cells transmit signals. Medical genomics is the practical application of the Human Genome Project.
“This cooperative effort shows the strength of Idaho’s scientific community and its ability to contribute to the state’s economy,” said UI President Bob Hoover. “More importantly, this grant will serve as seed money to help our scientists generate additional research funding and help students gain laboratory experience.”
"Had the three universities not gotten together this wouldn't have happened,” Laskowski said. “We put the science first and worked cooperatively."
The University of Idaho will administer the program. This year the three institutions will share nearly $2 million, with approximately $1 million going to UI, and $500,000 each to BSU and ISU.
The BRIN will emphasize three main objectives, Laskowski said. It will fund a portion of faculty members’ time so they can develop their research programs to be competitive nationally for future funding.
The NIH funding will help establish a bioinformatics network among the three Idaho schools. The sophisticated computer system will allow the rapid sharing and analysis of the biomedical data produced by the cooperating scientists. It also will provide new educational facilities at all three institutions.
“Finally, and most importantly, the NIH BRIN grant provides funds for undergraduate and graduate students to do research with the goal of educating the next generation of researchers for Idaho’s industry and universities,” Laskowski said. "The ultimate goal is to benefit the health and well being of people in the state.”
UI computer scientist James Foster will direct the bioinformatics program. He earlier won an NIH senior fellowship and was part of a team awarded $500,000 by the National Science Foundation for bioinformatics work, including the addition of a supercomputer at Moscow.
“We have a very strong group of faculty and students here in Idaho, and with the BRIN enhancements we also will have a nationally competitive computational infrastructure for both research and education,” Foster said.
Each university will use the grant for individual priorities.
Boise State will develop its expertise in structural biology and in proteomics, the science of understanding which proteins are produced by specific genes. The emerging science of proteomics is described by many scientists as the practical application of what has been learned about the human genome.
“The BRIN grant provides an opportunity for researchers in the Boise area to make a more significant contribution to advances in biomedical research,” said Julia T. Oxford, Boise State assistant professor of biology. “A major strength of the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network is the collaborative spirit behind the organization and among the scientists that will be involved.”
Idaho State University will expand its current expertise in genetic sequencing at the ISU Molecular Research Core Facility. “Sequencing genetic material allows us to examine not only gene structure, thus predicting function, but also how genes may be regulated,” said Christopher K. Daniels, chairman and associate professor of the ISU Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Pocatello.
"The collaboration between ISU, UI and BSU funded by this NIH BRIN grant will allow Idaho scientists to efficiently use multiple approaches in the study of important biomedical problems," Daniels said.
UI will develop its expertise in microarray analysis that will help determine what biochemical products genes produce in people who are healthy and those who are ill. The technique and equipment is so sophisticated it can tell which genes are switched on or off in individuals.
“Each project has an independent goal, but all three will rely on each other. Each project capitalizes on the individual strengths of each university so we aren’t reinventing the wheel,” Laskowski added.
The grant is part of the NIH’s IDeA or Institutional Development Award Program. Last year, a team of UI and Veterans Affairs Boise Medical Center researchers won a $9.4 million IDeA grant to establish a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence.
The NIH program is similar to the pioneering National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR or Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. A statewide committee reviews grant applications from Idaho’s universities and helps researchers improve them for submission to funding agencies.
“Idaho’s recent successes with NIH grants and the success of the state’s three universities in their roles as partners in the Inland Northwest Research Alliance shows the close link between education and research expertise,” said Charles R. Hatch, UI vice president for research. “UI is intent on establishing its reputation as a national research university and supporting the state’s economy.”
-30-
Contacts: Robert A. Hoover, UI President, (208) 885-9191, hoover@uidaho.edu; Michael Laskowski, UI director of the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho Medical Education Program, (208) 885-6696, mlaskow@uidaho.edu; Christopher K. Daniels, chairman and associate professor of the ISU Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, cdaniels@otc.isu.edu, (208) 282-2682; Martin Schimpf, BSU professor of chemistry and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, (208) 426-1414, mschimpf@boisestate.edu; James A. Foster, UI professor of computer science, (208) 885-7062, foster@cs.uidaho.edu; or Bill Loftus, UI science writer, (208) 885-7694, bloftus@uidaho.edu
Editor’s note: An NIH news release about the national BRIN program is available at www.nih.gov/news/pr/oct2001/ncrr-03.htm
BL–10/22/2001–
|
