OU-COM faculty
increases federal research funds
College
researchers awarded five grants from national
agencies
By Matt Bates
September 18, 2009
As the
stumbling economy threatens government funding, the
Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine
(OU-COM) faculty have actually increased their
federal funding. Just since July 1, national science
and health agencies have awarded six new grants,
totaling nearly $1,000,000, to fuel OU-COM faculty
research projects.
Recipients
include:
-
Karen
Coschigano, Ph.D., and Ramiro
Malgor, M.D., both assistant
professors of biomedical sciences
$16,101, National Institute of
Health (NIH)
“Cross-talk between growth
hormone and inflammation pathways in kidney damage”
-
Timothy
Heckman, Ph.D., professor of
geriatric medicine
$371,573, NIH
“Telephone-delivered coping
improvement intervention for HIV-infected older
adults”
$22,125, NIH
“Mechanisms of prostate cancer
prevention by down-regulation of the GH/IGF axis”
-
Yang Li, Ph.D.,
associate professor of biomedical
sciences
$221,250, NIH
“Elevated zinc in ischemia and
reperfusion”
-
Nancy Stevens,
Ph.D., assistant professor of
biomedical sciences
$180,000, National Science
Foundation (NSF)
“Early career: Acquisition of
paleobiological specimen preparation and imaging
facility”
-
Larry Witmer,
Ph.D., professor of biomedical
sciences
$180,000, NSF
“Brain evolution in Archosaurs:
New implications for scaling, function, and the
evolution of the modern conditions in birds and
crocodilians”
The grants
awarded to Stevens and to the team of Coschigano and
Malgor both were part of the recently created
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA),
signed into law by President Obama earlier this
year. These grants are part of more than $5,000,000
ARRA funds awarded to Ohio University faculty
members since February.
“We’re very
proud of our faculty dedication to research,” said
Christine Knisely, director of the Office of
Research and Grants at OU-COM. She explained that,
although this stimulus act funnels more money toward
research, it also has raised the number of grant
applicants, making the funds more competitive.
Knisely
attributes OU-COM researchers’ success to two
factors: increased research productivity among
faculty members and their growing familiarity with
the grant proposal process. (All five recipients
have applied for and won federal grants in the
past.)
Faculty
members are submitting more proposals than before,
especially during the past fiscal year. In 2009,
OU-COM researchers submitted 81 research grants,
requesting $32,800,000, up from 68 proposals
requesting $11,110,000 last year.
Among the
proposals submitted this year, 66 percent were sent
to federal agencies like the NSF and NIH. Currently,
OU-COM faculty members have 45 proposals still under
consideration for government funding.
