Emphasis on ‘mega’ grants pays off

In the fiscal year 2009-2010, UNMC investigators received 11 grants that paid more than $1 million each, for an average of $2.8 million.

These “mega” grants represent almost 25 percent of the total research funding — 10 years ago it represented about three percent of the total.

The Eppley Institute’s Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D., received a $5.3 million SPORE grant from the National Cancer Institutes. Such large grants helped UNMC grow its increase its overall extramural research funding from $100 to more than $115 million in fiscal year 2009-2010.

The acquisition of the larger grants was a major point of emphasis of the UNMC Research Strategic Plan, which has been in operation for more than 10 years, said Tom Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research.

Some of the “mega” grants in 2009-10 included:

• $10.9 million Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) grant for the Nebraska Center for Cellular Signaling to Keith Johnson, Ph.D., renewed in 2008 for five years — recently transferred from the late Peggy Wheelock, Ph.D. The grant focuses on the study of cell signaling in oral cancer and involves multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers.

• $10.4 million CoBRE grant to Shelley Smith, Ph.D., renewed in October 2009 for five years. The grant’s major research focus is regenerative medicine in relation to neurodevelopment of auditory and visual systems. Her team recently discovered a link between a particular gene and dyslexia.

• $5.3 million, five-year SPORE grant in pancreatic cancer from the National Cancer Institute awarded to Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D., at the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center in September 2008. UNMC was one of only two programs funded that year in pancreatic cancer research.

• $6.2 million from the United States Department of Defense to Ben Boedeker, M.D., Ph.D., in March 2009, to develop his system for battlefield tracheal intubation. This is in addition to the $1.6 million awarded to him in November 2007 by the Department of Defense.

• $2.7 million to Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., in April from the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriation that funds NASA to design, simulate and test mini-surgical robots during long-duration space missions, submarine deployments and remote military and research outposts.