$9 million grant for biomedical research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Idaho more than $9 million to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. The five-year grant is the largest single research grant in the 111-year history of the university.

The center initially will support four individual research projects studying the molecular and cellular basis of host-pathogen interactions. These include (1) E. coli in cattle, (2) a gene and protein in mothers that protects the fetus from viral disease, (3) Staph bacteria’s ability to invade cells, and (4) the immune response to gas gangrene.

"In addition to the long-term benefits of this kind of research to Idaho and the nation, a grant of this size constitutes a direct infusion of funds into the Idaho economy," said UI President Bob Hoover.

Gregory A. Bohach, head of the UI Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department, will direct the new center. "The center will expand Idaho’s infectious disease, food safety, and related biomedical research strengths," Bohach said.

Idaho’s statewide Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) contributed to the UI effort, which drew on the NIH Institutional Development Award program. The state EPSCoR committee is led by Post Falls businessman Doyle Jacklin and State Sen. Laird Noh of Kimberly.

The grant will enhance the research capability of scientists already on the faculty and add two new scientists, a virologist and a cell biologist.

The research projects will be led by Carolyn Hovde Bohach, UI associate professor of microbiology; Troy Ott, UI assistant professor of animal science; Kenneth W. Bayles, assistant professor of microbiology; and Amy Bryant, a UI affiliate faculty member and VA Boise Medical Center research scientist.

Further information is available at the www.ag.uidaho.edu/cobre web-site.

—Bill Loftus