Science Market Update

Representatives from the University of Arizona, Tucson announced two massive monetary awards this week for researchers in life science disciplines.

Highlighting UA Tucson's Summer achievements though was a $43 million award to support at least five years of disease research, both on the basic science and clinic sides. This record breaking grant from this NIH, the largest in Arizona's history, will likely propel UA's ranking further ahead on the 2016 NIH Life Science Funding statistics list. In 2015, UAZ received a total of $75.5 million. 

“This is huge for Arizona. Only four academic medical centers across the country were chosen,” said Elizabeth Calhoun, one of the grant’s principal investigators at the UA’s Arizona Health Sciences Center. “Arizona will now have the ability to partake in the next generation of science in a way that they have never had an ability to do."

(University of Arizona campus, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The second was a $11.4 million, five-year project grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute which will fund research into the genetics of acute lung disorders. Dr. Joe "Skip" Garcia, the senior vice president of health sciences at the University of Arizona and principal investigator of this study, received this award through the NIH's highly competitive Project Program Grant which encourages collaborative projects between peers with diverse specialties to catalyze innovative results. 

"Coming shortly after the announcement of the largest NIH grant ever awarded in the state of Arizona, this award is another reminder of the strength of the UA Health Sciences and the impact our faculty researchers, clinicians and teachers are creating in our state and around the world." ~UA President Ann Weaver Hart

 To learn more about life science research developments and  discoveries  at the University of Arizona, see the left links  featuring recently published UA articles previously published on  Science Market Update:

Rockefeller University is currently experiencing one of the largest phases of research expansion in its modern history. To accommodate for its expanding research capabilities as a competitive institution, Rockefeller University officials have already begun implementing changes to grow the campus and construct new research buildings and institutes all together. 

Collaborative research projects across engineering and biomedicine are elevating Michigan State University's status as a top research institution thanks to its newly constructed Bio Engineering Facility. 

Bacteria research has become an increasingly important focus for researchers in the biomedical community as of late. From studying antibiotic resistant superbugs at UCSD to investigating bacterial diversity at Rutgers University, researchers are using these microscopic organisms to provide insight into diseases that plague our society.

A link between the Zika virus and microcephaly has finally been proven by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, ending the pervasive question sparked earlier this year.

Cancer Research UK released a staggering statistic in 2014: 46% of people who have cancer are diagnosed during stages 3 or 4; these late stage diagnoses greatly reduce the chances of survival, as treatment success drops once cancer has progressed to such an advanced stage. 

The University of Maryland, Baltimore is currently constructing a massive collaborative research building on its medical campus, the first new research facility since 2003. The Health Science Facility III will be UMD Baltimore's largest research building by far once construction completes in December 2017. This facility will house researchers from the schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry to catalyze collaboration between these schools and continue to secure UMD Baltimore's spot as one of the top research institutions in the country. This $305.4 million construction project, which broke ground in 2013, will create 428,970 square feet of space spread over 10 stories. This building will feature two adjoining towers to incorporate both wet and dry research lab space. Around 70,000 square feet of this space will be solely dedicated to wet lab research for approximately 92 principal investigators, accounting for just over 1/6 of the total space in the building.

“When this facility opens, our students and research scientists will have access to the most cutting-edge of scientific facilities, as well as easier access to each other, encouraging collaboration across disciplines,” said William E. “Brit” Kirwan, Ph.D., chancellor of the University System of Maryland. “We are excited that research scientists from our School of Medicine will be able to advance their collaborative research and discovery efforts with colleagues across the Campus and the University System unimpeded by space limitations. We hope to see new, interdisciplinary partnerships develop, leading to a better understanding of human health and disease and a fully comprehensive education for our students.”

University officials and campus scientists are excited for the potential the establishment of this collaborative facility has for the University of Maryland's contributions to the research community. Fields of study expected to especially benefit from this interdisciplinary workplace include Genome Sciences, Personalized and Genomic Medicine, Cancer Biology, Cardiovascular Science, Brain Science, Stem Cell Biology, and Infection/Inflammation Science among many other areas. 

 (Artistic rendering of HSFIII courtesy of pharmaceutical-technology.com)

“With this groundbreaking, we are ushering in a revolution in biomedicine, here at the School of Medicine, where fundamental research and advancement in technology converge to create new pathways and new opportunities for science and technology to dramatically impact the health and well-being of the citizens of Maryland, and the region, while positively impacting the economy of our state,” said E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “Within the portals of this building will be conducted robust collaborative research that will expand across the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus where School of Medicine investigators will engage collaboratively with other colleagues across the campus and beyond – especially scientists at the School of Dentistry and the School of Pharmacy.”

Most exciting, though, is the announcement that space in Health Science Facility III has yet to be assigned by university officials. By keeping laboratory benches unassigned during construction, the university aims to recruit new, interdisciplinary researchers to house these new life science labs to truly evoke a feeling of youth and energy throughout the facility once it opens for occupancy in January 2018.

Learn more about the state-of-the-art research and innovations happening at the University of Maryland, Baltimore with the following articles:

Baltimore Researchers Identify Dangerous E. coli Strains

Baltimore Biorsearchers Receive $10.7 Million for STD Research

UMD Baltimore Creating New $15.2M Genome Center for Infectious Diseases

(Image taken at 2015 BioResearch Product Faire™ Event at UMD Baltimore™ Event at UMD Baltimore)

Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. has been producing highly reputable life science trade shows at more than fifty research universities across the U.S. for over twenty years. These shows bring hundreds of researchers in search of the best new tools together with lab supply companies.

If you are interested in exhibiting your laboratory supplies to, and connecting with, researchers at UMD Baltimore, we invite you to join us at our upcoming Baltimore event. The 2nd Annual BioResearch Product Faire™ Event at the University of Maryland, Baltimore will be held on June 8, 2016. 

To learn more about participating at this Baltimore event, visit the link below: 

Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder have recently discovered information about stem cell division that may change the way we approach regenerative medicine and cancer research. These findings were published as the cover story in Science for its February 5th issue. 

Since the discovery of the first true antibiotic -penicillin- in 1928, the treatment of bacterial infections has evolved into merely an inconvenient visit to the doctor's office for most of the western world. But just as modern medicine has evolved to make an infected cut no longer equal a death sentence, so too have bacteria in the form of "superbugs". These "superbugs" are bacteria which have become increasingly immune to traditional antibiotic treatments.

A new strategy for combating the neurologically destructive effects of Parkinson's Disease has been developed jointly by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.