New $50 million grant links ag research with human health

New $50 million grant links ag research with human health

germs Three College of Agricultural and Life Sciences researchers helped a regional medical education consortium win a $50 million grant for a Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research.

Illustration by Crissie Hardy.

The Washington,Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) regional medical education program based at the University of Washington will oversee the grant.The UI share totals about $2 million. UI researchers are Greg Bohach, Carolyn Bohach, and Scott Minnich, all of the CALS Department of Microbiology,Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

“We are proud to participate in this program,” said Dick Heimsch, acting dean and Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station director.“The selection shows the UI has researchers with the expertise and facilities to pursue science of national importance. It highlights the importance of our new Agricultural Biotechnology Laboratory, one of the nation’s most advanced.

“The project also underscores the increasingly close ties between agricultural and human health research.”

Preventive Medicine Goal
Preventive medicine is the goal of the new WWAMI center.The center also will focus on applied research projects leading to treatments.

The UI role will include development of vaccines and immune-system stimulants to fight naturally occurring and introduced disease agents identified as bioterrorism risks.

Idaho biomedical researchers lead the nation in winning new NIH funding for health research by doubling the total since 2000.That distinction excludes nearly $30 million the UI landed through the NIH Institutional Development Awards program to jump-start its biomedical research programs.

-- Bill Loftus