Cash for Cures -- Georgetown University Medical Center Researchers Receive Millions in Awards From the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
This information was first published 9.12.09 and updated on 9.30.09
Washington, DC – More than twenty scientists and physicians representing a diverse cross-section of biomedical research at Georgetown University Medical Center have received nearly $5.5 million
($8.9 million as of 9.30.09) in stimulus funding made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In addition to funding important laboratory research, ARRA grants have allowed researchers to support, in part or whole, nearly 40 full or part time jobs, many of which are permanent. GUMC researchers have submitted $140 million in grant applications leading to this first round of awards.
“ARRA presents an unprecedented opportunity for a one-time increase in sponsored-research funding,” says Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD, executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of the School of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. “GUMC researchers have devoted a significant amount of time and hard work to maximize this opportunity. These ARRA awards significantly strengthen our world-class research and offer great potential for impacting public health.”
The ARRA grants awarded come from the National Science Foundation and from a dozen institutions within the National Institutes of Health including the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; the National Cancer Institute; and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. In addition to stimulating research projects, ARRA grants also provide funding for facility upgrades and equipment.
Some examples of ARRA funding to GUMC researchers include:
Josef Rauschecker, PhD, is a professor in the department of physiology and biophysics. ARRA funding allows him to add five to six new positions to his research team. Rauschecker’s research is aimed at understanding the physiological mechanisms underlying brain and cognitive plasticity in blindness to help to develop more adequate rehabilitation strategies and assistive devices for the blind, such as visual prostheses or sensory substitution devices. Rauschecker’s funding also allows research into brain reorganization underlying tinnitus.
Hongfang Liu, MS, PhD, an assistant professor in department of biostatistics, bioinformatics, and biomathematics, will add four new positions because of her ARRA funding. Liu’s research is ontology-based biomedical knowledge retrieval and management. The research is critical to storing, retrieving, and extracting knowledge and information in the biomedical domain, and therefore to enabling knowledge-based "-omics" data analysis for systems biology and medicine. Additionally, the proposed research will benefit biomedical researchers and the general community for understanding and managing biomedical text through web interfaces and automated systems.
Bonnie Green, PhD, a professor in the psychiatry department, has added a new researcher to her team as a result of ARRA funding. Green’s research explores ways to improve communication between primary care providers and their trauma patients, especially trauma involving interpersonal violence among low-income and minority patients. The long-term goal of the research program is to support primary care providers by providing them with multiple strategies to address the physical and mental health complaints of their patients and improve preventive care.
Gerard Ahern, PhD, an associate professor in the department of pharmacology, will add one new position to his research team. His ARRA grant funds the study of novel mechanisms by which sensory neurons detect noxious stimuli. The ability to detect noxious stimuli is critical to survival, but can also be the source of unwanted pain. Deciphering biologic neural pathways promises the potential for improved treatment of pain-the most frequently cited health-care concern.
Rebecca Riggins, PhD, is an assistant professor at GUMC’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her ARRA funding supports the addition of one position to her research team. Riggins is studying diet-induced obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes among women in the United States. Her ARRA grant will allow her to study how genetic and environmental factors including BPA exposure affect susceptibility to mammary tumorigenesis in response to diet-induced obesity and its associated co-morbidities like insulin resistance.
About Georgetown University Medical Center Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through Georgetown’s affiliation with MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and Health Studies, both nationally ranked, the world-renowned Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), home to 60 percent of the university’s sponsored research funding.
