UB Awarded Nearly $19 million in Stimulus Funding to Date

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo has been awarded $18.7 million so far in federal stimulus funding for 58 research grant awards since February, when Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

During a visit to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today, President Barack Obama announced the $5 billion in grants that NIH has awarded to universities and research institutes across the nation to support critical research while simultaneously stimulating local economies -- UB being one such recipient of these funds. To date, UB has received $18.7 million in awards through ARRA -- $11.6 million from the NIH and $7.1 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"From the beginning, our goal has been to rescue the economy at the same time as we're laying a new foundation for lasting economic growth," Obama said today during the announcement in Bethesda, Md.

To date, UB has received 17 National Science Foundation (NSF) awards and 41 National Institutes of Health (NIH) ARRA awards.

ARRA funding is intended to stimulate the national economy by making funds available for job creation and retention, infrastructure investment, education, energy efficiency, health research and assistance to the unemployed in states across the nation. According to the White House, research grants are part of ARRA's overall investment of $100 billion to innovative research and advancing science and technology infrastructure.

"The federal government's multi-billion dollar investment has been a boon to higher education because it supports the research pursuits of universities like UB, which in turn stimulates local economies, such as Western New York, impacted by university research," explains Jorge V. José, Dr. Sci., UB vice president for research.

"ARRA stipulates that its grant resources are to be leveraged for economic impact in local communities and must help to improve quality of life, and for accelerating critical scientific research," says José. "Having an impact on regional workforce creation is also considered to be part of this objective. UB's ARRA-funded research meets each of these objectives."

For example, John M. Canty, M.D., chief of UB's Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, was awarded $2 million from ARRA to purchase a sophisticated cardiovascular PET/CT scanner, which will be used by UB researchers to study the underlying causes of heart disease and stroke.

"Heart disease continues to be one of the leading causes of death and disability," says Canty, the Albert and Elizabeth Rekate Professor of Medicine at UB.

"This new scanner will advance UB's discovery of potentially relevant therapies by focusing on the translation of research from the preclinical to clinical stages."

NIH officials also stressed how funding basic research was a wise economic investment. Former acting NIH Director Raynard Kington estimated that each dollar invested by the NIH stimulates $2.50 in associated economic activity.

Other UB researchers and projects being funded by ARRA include:

• Sarbajit Banerjee, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award (CAREER is the NSF's "most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research and excellent education"). The award will look at how Nanoscale materials -- which often show properties that are not exhibited by their bulk counterparts -- can be harnessed for practical applications such as making faster electronic circuits for use in the next generation of computers, "smart" window materials that change color with temperature, and accurate sensors for detecting low concentrations of vapors.

• Jean Wactawski-Wende, Ph.D., professor of social and preventive medicine and gynecology-obstetrics, and colleagues in the dental school were awarded an NIH "Challenge Grant." These grants are designed to address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that will benefit from significant two-year jumpstart funds. The research in these areas should have a high impact in biomedical or behavioral science and/or public health. Wactawski-Wende and her colleagues are engaged in a study in older women, looking at saliva and serum inflammatory biomarkers in periodontitis.

• Cynthia Dlugos, Ph.D., research assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, is studying the imbalances in calcium homeostasis (dynamic metabolic equilibrium) through alcohol-related nerve degeneration. Recent studies show that consistent, albeit moderate alcohol consumption in human adults results in permanent alterations in cerebellar-based motor coordination and also in the cognitive activities ascribed to the cerebellum's connections with the frontal lobe. Permanent deficits result from these alterations that become more prevalent with age and predispose our increasing elderly population to falls, accidents and cognitive dysfunctions.

• Ia Iashvili, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics, has received support for a long-term research program in collider physics that will foster collaboration between UB, high school teachers and their students.

• Ezra Zubrow, Ph.D., professor of anthropology, is working jointly with Russian scientists to study the past and potential range of human resilience when faced with global and local environmental changes in order to aid policy makers in their decisions with regard to energy, post-colonial governance and strategy.

• Saul Greenfield, M.D., clinical associate professor of urology, received supplemental funds in support of the randomized multi-institutional clinical trial of girls with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) after a urinary tract infection -- it is estimated that up to 50,000 children are newly diagnosed of VUR annually in the U.S.

"We've awarded $5 billion in grants through the Recovery Act to conduct cutting-edge research all across America, to unlock treatments to diseases that have long plagued humanity, to save and enrich the lives of people all over the world," Obama told the officials at the NIH conference. "This represents the single largest boost to biomedical research in history.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.