UConn Health

July 15, 2011 | Carolyn Pennington - Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine

Genetics and Developmental Biology Researchers Awarded Nearly $10 Million in NIH Funding Over the Past Few Months

It’s been a rewarding past few months for several Health Center researchers with the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology. Five scientists have garnered nearly $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Over the last several years, the department has steadily increased the amount of federal funding it has received. This […]

Bruce Mayer, Ph.D., left, and Kazuya Machida, Ph.D., have developed a rapid and highly sensitive method for profiling one of the most important processes by which cells transmit signals from outside to inside the cell, on August 13, 2007. (James Bliss for UConn Health Center)It’s been a rewarding past few months for several Health Center researchers with the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology. Five scientists have garnered nearly $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Over the last several years, the department has steadily increased the amount of federal funding it has received. This is the highest amount awarded over a four month period.

“Our faculty has been awarded these grants at a time when competition for NIH grants is fierce. Our close research and academic interactions with the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling have been critical to this success given the NIH’s present focus on interdisciplinary research,” says Marc Lalande, professor and chair of the department. “Not only does this new grant funding raise the national and international reputation of our faculty, it helps retain current personnel and potentially hire additional staff.”

NIH Grant Awards:

Michael Blinov, Bringing BioNetGen Rule Based Modeling to Virtual Cell Users, 3 years, $877,484

Stormy Chamberlain, Regulation of UBE3A Genomic Imprinting by Tissue-Specific Alternative Splicing, 5 years, $1,296,183

Brenton Graveley, Trans-Splicing in Drosophila, 4 years, $1,666,594 and Alternative Splicing of the Drosophila Dscam Pre-mRNA, 4 years, $1,324,041

Arthur Gunzl, RNA Polymerase II Transcription in Trypanosomes, 5 years, $1,912,366

Bruce Mayer, Dynamics and Topology of Phosphotyrosine-SH2 Interaction Networks, 5 years, $2,582,232