Newswise — The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has captured 104 of 476 Maryland grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Attracting more than 100 NIH competitive grants under the recovery act reflects an overall expansion of vital research programs in recent years at UMB, including increasing success in attracting funding in the areas of infectious disease, oncology, human virology, vaccinology, genomics, and stem cell research, says UMB President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil.
Despite the slow economy and tight federal funds for research, UMB showed significant growth in funding to campus researchers, totaling $517 million in Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) from $450 million in FY08.
Previously, under Ramsay’s leadership, the campus increased its research base from $138 million in 1997 to $411 million in 2007. The research and development surge places UMB among the top public academic medical centers in the country for research dollars.
With its grants, NIH is, in effect, asking for answers to critical health and medical questions, including: • Will two muscle molecules found by School of Nursing researchers help restore strength to people with muscular dystrophy? (Grant title, “Genetic disease modifier of muscular dystrophy”)• Can an unprecedented, large-scale study by School of Medicine investigators convince parents and caregivers that different toddler feeding styles limits obesity among low-income children? (Grant title, “Toddler feeding styles”)• Will an investigation of Medicare and insurance claim data by School of Pharmacy researchers clear up uncertain long-term benefits of common clinical treatments for a blood-related disorder affecting at least 10,000 new patients annually? (Grant title: “Erythropoietic stimulating agents in treatment of MDS”)• Can Dental School researchers see if a recent spike in early childhood caries is due to drinking more sugary beverages? (Grant title: “Beverage consumption and early childhood caries”)
Descriptions of these and all 104 NIH grants to UMB can be found at http://report.nih.gov/recovery/arragrants.cfm.
UMB's nearly 2,400 faculty members in seven professional and graduate schools train the majority of the state's physicians, nurses, dentists, lawyers, social workers, and pharmacists. The University is located on a 61-acre research and technology complex in West Baltimore near the Inner Harbor.
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