Science Market Update

University of Arizona Researcher Awarded IMHR Pilot Grant

Written by Jennifer Nieuwkerk | Mon, Aug 19, 2013

A University of Arizona, Tucson researcher, Charles Raison, MD, recently received a 2013 IMHR Pilot Grant of $20,000 from the Institute for Mental Health Research to study the effects of whole body hyperthermia as an antidepressant. Dr. Raison is an associate professor of psychiatry in the College of Medicine and an associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, as well. His study is titled, “Antidepressant Effects of Whole Body Hyperthermia (WBH).”

"What's really remarkable in the work done so far is the evidence that is beginning to accumulate suggesting that it might be possible to treat this hugely costly mental illness by interventions based in the body, not in the brain," Dr. Raison said. "Because sensory pathways evolved to have very specific effects on brain function and resultant behavior, we increasingly think they might be utilized to craft very specific and benign treatments for depression and anxiety. We have designed the hyperthermia study to begin really testing this possibility. ”

According to a University of Arizona news article, the $20,000 in funding Dr. Raison received will be used to add to existing extramural funding in order to financially support a current controlled study of mild whole body hyperthermia. Dr. Raison’s research builds upon past data from his research team that implies that sensory pathways running from the brain to the body may affect the development of depression and be potentially useful as a way of treating the disorder.

 

Tucson BioResearch Product Faire™ Event 2012

 

In addition to this latest IMHR grant, the University of Arizona receives a great deal of funding from the NIH and NSF available for researchers interested in life science products and lab suppliers working to sell lab equipment. In 2012, the NIH gave the University of Arizona, Tucson $83.3 million in research funding. The top funded department receiving NIH funding was anatomy and cell biology, which received 16 awards totaling $15.4 million. The NSF also gave the University of Arizona, Tucson $51.5 million in 2012. This money was given out to a vast number of projects in various life science disciplines. For a full list of departments and projects receiving NIH and NSF funding at the University of Arizona, Tucson, please visit the NIH website and the NSF website.

If you are a lab supplier interested in working to sell lab equipment and life science products at Arizona life science marketing events, Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. invites you to attend our annual Tucson BioResearch Product Faire™ Event on October 9th, 2013. Last year’s Tucson BioResearch Product Faire™ Event attracted 151 attendees. Twenty-five of the attendees were purchasing agents, professors and post docs, and 25 were lab managers. The visitors came from 23 different research buildings and 41 departments around campus.

Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is a full-service science research marketing and events-planning company that has been organizing life science marketing events at top research universities nationwide for 20 years. If you’re interested in working to sell lab equipment and life science products at life science marketing events closer to home, we encourage you to view our 2013 calendar of events. For more information on the Tucson BioResearch Product Faire™ Event, or for more detailed funding statistics on the University of Arizona, Tucson, click on the button below.