In the David and Goliath world of science research funding, young scientists who lack the experience and PI status to pull in funding from sources like the NIH and NSF now have a new resource at petridish.org. The website, just launched in a beta version, allows scientists to appeal to ordinary folk for funding to support their research, with typically modest goals of $10,000 or less. The nine projects that debuted on petridish.org are almost all led by PhD candidates, post-docs, and staff researchers from top universities, and most are looking to travel to do data collection for life science projects. These could be tomorrow's big names in science research, getting innovative about moving their research forward now.
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Tags: 2012 Research Funding, crowdsourcing, biology research, Funding, Science Projects, science research, biotech solutions, innovative solution, scientist solutions, early career funding, science research funding
The NIH has funded a five-year, $21 million Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism grant to support a multi-site consortium led by Oregon Health & Science University researchers Kathleen A. Grant and Betsy Ferguson. The grant represents the second competitive renewal for the INIA consortium (founded in 2001), which is made up of 15 lead investigators from 10 institutions in the United States and Europe. OHSU's share of the current funding is $6.3M. Dr. Grant is the head of neuroscience at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), where Dr. Ferguson is an associate scientist. The Division of Neuroscience at the ONPRC conducts research aimed at identifying and defining fundamental aspects of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system function.
Tags: Northeast, Oregon Health Sciences University, cell biology, women in science, Oregon, alcoholism research, Neuroscience, BioResearch Product Faire Event, OHSU, Portland, BRPF, life science partners
There is still no magic pill for the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight, but research into the cellular mechanism of fat production is turning up promising avenues for therapeutics that are closer than you might think. We mentioned "good brown fat" in a recent article on hormone research at Harvard. Scientists in the Diabetes Center and the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology at the University of California San Francisco, Parnassus Campus, are also looking at brown fat production as a treatment for obesity.
Tags: University of California San Francisco, cell biology, Diabetes, Southwest, California, San Francisco, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, BVS
Tags: Midwest, New research facilities, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Madison, BioResearch Product Faire Event, laboratory, innovative solution, science buildings, BRPF, green design, university bioresearch, life science partners
Thanks to a $15M charitable gift from the Helmsley Trust, Rockefeller University is establishing a new research center to focus on digestive diseases: the Center for Basic and Translational Research on Disorders of the Digestive System. With research faculty from 20 Rockefeller labs working in the fields of immunology, microbiology, cancer biology, and metabolic disease, the collaborative center will support the training of Ph.D students, postdoctoral researchers, and physician-scientists, as well as provide seed grants for early phase projects and funding for the purchase of equipment.
Tags: Rockefeller University, Northeast, Medical Research, Stem cell research, New research facilities, Life Science Funding, new science wet labs, New York, biology research, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, New York City, new construction, BRPF, charitable giving
The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the largest, most successful established biotech hubs in the US, thanks in part to the presence of 3 of the world's top universities: UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. Strong on intellectual capital, the area has been notoriously short of real estate since developers were ordered to stop filling in the Bay back in the 60's. Fortunately, as manufacturing waned, industrial land became available for redevelopment as high-tech R&D lab space, which is how UCSF's Mission Bay campus eventually came to be. Across the Bay to the East, bayfront industrial property is seeing a similar repurposing, with particularly mushroom-like life science growth in the little city of Emeryville, though also in neighboring Berkeley and Richmond.
Tags: CA, University of California San Francisco, University of California Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, New research facilities, California, Berkeley, San Francisco, UCSF, new construction, National Lab, UC Berkeley, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco East Bay
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has been producing top scientists for a long time. One notable alum, who went on to found the research science company SAIC, has recently donated $15 million to his alma mater, ensuring that Michigan will continue to train and support future generations of innovative engineers. In honor of this generous gift, the University will name its new engineering building on the North Campus after the donor and his wife, hence the Bob and Betty Beyster Building for Computer Science and Engineering. This isn't Robert Beyster's first gift to UM Ann Arbor either. In recent years, he has contributed toward research in biofuels, cloud computing and security, and gene therapeutics. He has also funded a class on employee ownership though the Center for Entrepreneurship. Michigan has one of the top engineering programs in the country.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, New research facilities, 2012, Ann Arbor, Engineering, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, MI, UMich, charitable giving
Federal basic and applied science research funding could see an increase of 3.3% over 2012 (enacted) levels, to $64B, if the President's budget request for 2013 is approved. Holding tight to the promise of supporting technology and innovation while at the same time respecting the deficit cap imposed by Congress, the latest budget request proposes only level $30.7B funding for the NIH but funding increases for the NSF, NIST, and DOE Office of Science, with a combined total of $13.1B.
Tags: 2012 Research Funding, 2011 Research Funding, venture development in life sciences, Funding, NIH, new research grants, NSF, charitable giving
The National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program has just announced the 2012 winners of its prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who are exceptional both as teachers and researchers. The University of Colorado Boulder boasts two winners this year from the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology deparment (EBIO). Together their awards bring over $1.5M in new funding to their research on amphibian and avian biology. The laboratory aspects of Drs. Safran and Johnson's research involve genetics, stable-isotope analysis, and the study of microscopic disease-causing parasites.
Tags: crowdsourcing, women in science, evolution research, Southwest, 2012, biology research, biology research scientists, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Research Funding, Ecology, CO, NSF, Boulder, UCO, citizen science, University of Colorato
Imagine how much more territory you could explore if so much of your budget didn't have to go for gas. That's the thinking behind both the Better Buildings Challenge issued by the DOE and the University of California Irvine's new and retrofitted Smart Labs, which are getting a lot of attention nationwide for their success at cutting building inefficiencies and expenses by upwards of 50%. So what makes a Smart Lab so smart? What did building system engineers find when they put their bio research facilities and equipment under the microscope?
Tags: CA, Bioresearch, New research facilities, Southwest, 2012, BioResearch Product Faire Event, laboratory, Irvine, green life science research, Laboratory Equipment Supplier, laboratory sales, green design, UCI, UC Irvine