For Release: September 7, 2010
Contact:
David Corriveau, Media-Relations Officer, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Dartmouth Medical School, at david.a.corriveau@hitchcock.org or 603-653-1978.
DMS, UNH to Lead N.H. Research Network
Ronald K. Taylor, Ph.D.
Hanover, N.H.—With a $15.4-million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dartmouth Medical School (DMS), the University of New Hampshire (UNH), and eight undergraduate institutions are forming a network to support biomedical research by faculty and students throughout New Hampshire.
As the lead institutions, DMS and UNH will oversee the awarding of grants and fellowships for the new IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), with the support of NIH's National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). Their partner institutions are Plymouth State University, Keene State College, Colby-Sawyer College in New London, St. Anselm College in Manchester, Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New England College in Henniker, River Valley Community College in Claremont, and Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth.
"The ultimate goal is to provide research opportunities for undergraduates to experience the art of scientific discovery under the close direction of faculty researchers in the state of New Hampshire says the new INBRE's principal investigator, Ronald K. Taylor, Ph.D., a DMS professor of microbiology and immunology and the director of the medical school's Microbiology and Molecular Pathogenesis Program. "We also want to retain biomedical investigators in the state - to keep and develop the talent we have here. Some of these are researchers who haven't had the experience to get preliminary results that would allow them to compete for research grants on a national level. NH-INBRE will provide resources and develop a statewide research culture that will help to achieve these goals.
"This changes everything. This provides the opportunities for students to conduct real experiments well beyond just experiencing the typically pre-choreographed lab course."
Dartmouth faculty and researchers joining Taylor on the leadership team are microbiologist Steven Fiering, Ph.D., as project coordinator; physiologist Robert Maue, Ph.D., as director of research training; biochemist Charles Cole, Ph.D., as director of research projects; geneticist Jason Moore, Ph.D., as director of the bioinformatics core; and Mary Jo Slattery, R.N., M.S., as director of nursing research training. Slattery coordinates nursing research at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
From UNH, geneticist William Kelley Thomas, Ph.D., co-directs the bioinformatics core and Jane Nisbet, Ph.D., serves as vice provost for research.
DMS also is the lead institution for two NCRR-supported Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE). Physiologist Bruce Stanton, Ph.D., runs the Center for Lung Biology Research, and DMS Dean William R. Green, Ph.D., is principal investigator at the Center for Molecular, Cellular, and Translational Immunological Research.
"DMS can take pride in the extra effort that Ron Taylor's team put into assembling this very complicated application," says Green. "In addition to strengthening existing connections and building new relationships with other New Hampshire institutions, this grant will pave the way for closer interaction with our INBRE neighbors in Vermont and Maine, and with our own COBREs."
NCRR supports INBREs in eligible - mostly rural - states through its Division of Research Infrastructure.
"Through the power of shared resources, the INBRE created by this award will strengthen the research infrastructure throughout New Hampshire and the Northeast region," says NCRR Director Barbara Alving, M.D. "The bioinformatics core developed by this network will make cutting-edge technologies available to institutions across the state and ultimately speed the pace of biomedical research discovery in New Hampshire and beyond."
Information about the national INBRE program is available from Bobbi Williams Gardner, Office of Communications, National Center for Research Resources, at williamsbj@mail.nih.gov or at 301-443-9919
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