November 17, 2016
Hello,
Even though we closed fiscal year 2016 on August 31, the National Institutes of Health year ends in September and our UTHealth extramural research funding numbers have only recently been finalized.
Our investigators have been working very hard—submitted grants in record numbers this past year. Despite an ever-tightening federal belt, we had a nice increase in research expenditures for FY16 over FY15. Our total extramural research awards for FY16 were $162 million compared to $141 million in FY15 – a 15 percent increase. Of this total, about $110 million were awards from federal agencies, compared to $102 million last fiscal year.
McGovern Medical School’s top 10 funded programs for FY16 are:
- Pediatrics Children’s Learning Institute $26M
- Internal Medicine $19.2M
- Neurology $16M
- Integrative Biology and Pharmacology $14.7M
- Institute of Molecular Medicine $13.3M
- Pediatrics $11.8M
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology $11.2M
- Surgery $8.4M
- Neurobiology and Anatomy $6.9M
- Microbiology and Molecular Genetics $6.3M
The largest grant of the year, $11.7M, went to principal investigator Dr. Susan Landry, director and founder of the Children’s Learning Institute, for 2015-16 School Readiness Models. This year our investigators received funding to pursue studies such as investigating blood-based diagnostics for Alzheimer’s disease, finding genetic predispositions for thoracic aortic aneurysms/dissections, creating ultrasound-assisted thrombolysis for stroke therapy, studying whole body MRI in suspects of abusive head trauma, studying regulation and function of the circadian clock, developing obesity prevention among at-risk toddlers, studying caregiver innovations to reduce harm in neonatal intensive care—to point out just a few—research that will make a difference in future generations of Texans.
And hot off the presses, new grants funded by CPRIT just this week include a $1M Early Translational Research Award to Qingyun Liu from the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases and two Individual Investigator Awards, each for $900,000, to Dr. John Hancock, chair of the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, and Dr. Wenliang Li of the IMM.
I am proud to be part of an environment that values discovery to improve health and wellness. Thank you to our scientific teams for the contributions they make each day to make our world a healthier place.
And a reminder that today is World Prematurity Day, a day to raise awareness of the serious problem of premature birth. Prematurity rates have increased in the United States for the first time in eight years, and globally prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5. On Monday, Nov. 21, please help us celebrate Public Health Thank You Day by using the hashtag #PHTYD to thank those who work to advance public health.
Warm regards,
Barbara
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