A new wave of federal stimulus funds is infusing stem-cell, cancer and obesity research with new life at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Eight UNMC researchers recently hauled in a combined $2 million from the National Institutes of Health for their projects, adding to the center's existing $3.1 million stack of stimulus dollars.
The funds are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Congress-crafted package that pumps billions of dollars into research projects that stimulate the economy and create jobs. The NIH, which is the main federal agency that supports medical research, is doling out about $10 billion through the stimulus.
Prior to this year, the organization's research budget had been virtually stagnant, leaving researchers with many high-quality but pent-up proposals, said Mark Bowen, director of government relations for UNMC.
Now that's changing, he said.
As intended, the ARRA is providing for new positions and extended research at UNMC. It's allowing Angie Rizzino, a professor in UNMC's Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, to hire an extra hand in the lab where he and his team work with stem cells.
His research involving stem cells unrelated to the controversial embryonic stem cells was something the NIH specifically looked for, Rizzino said.
Embryonic stem cells can morph into virtually any of the body's cells, which makes them valuable for treating diseases that cause tissue damage. But because they come from discarded human eggs, their use is contentious.
Rizzino's $111,375 stimulus grant, which supplements one he's held for 20 years, may help to eventually quiet that controversy. He's investigating the mechanisms by which normal adult cells are reprogrammed to resemble embryonic stem cells, thus providing the same benefit but avoiding the controversy.
How such a transformation works is somewhat of a mystery. Rizzino said he wants to understand which proteins already in the cell interact with genes inserted for reprogramming. From there, he'd identify which ones are critical to the process, he said.
"Knowing the key players" could "undoubtedly speed reprogramming up, make it more efficient and make it safer," Rizzino said.
Also through the stimulus, Jim Turpen, UNMC professor of genetics, cell biology and anatomy, is "building bridges" between Nebraska universities "to develop research infrastructure throughout the state." Turpen earned two grants worth a combined $812,307 to do so.
With one award, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Kearney are using fruit flies to investigate the genetics of obesity.
"They're looking at how that impacts life longevity," Turpen said.
Through the other grant, UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Omaha are creating a post-doctoral position in an X-ray crystallography lab and a graduate-level course in nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. Such fields are useful in understanding the structure and composition of proteins, Turpen said.
Other stimulus grants won by UNMC include one for $133,919 to research the spread of pancreatic cancer cells and another worth $188,363 to create a noninvasive treatment for heart conditions and stroke.
"We're now offering more opportunities for researchers from Nebraska to do research in Nebraska," Bowen said of the stimulus' impact. "That makes it that much better for the state and the economy."
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
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