Biology
awarded NIH grant for research excellence
Five-year,
$10 million funding will establish immunobiology center
By Steve
Carr
The UNM
Biology Department received a five-year, $10 million grant from
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Biomedical
Research Excellence (COBRE) program in Evolutionary and
Theoretical Immunology.
The
grant, a partnership between the biology and computer science
departments and Los Alamos National Laboratory, is designed
to enhance funding for states traditionally underrepresented
in NIH funding, said Eric Loker, department chair and
regents professor of biology.
The primary
goal of the proposal is to establish a research center at UNM
with a thematic focus in the disciplines of theoretical and
evolutionary immunobiology. The center aims to strengthen ties
among senior investigators and create a nurturing, vibrant environment
where junior scholars with interests in these disciplines can
prosper intellectually, and become independently funded to pursue
interests in these areas.
Its
a wonderful opportunity for biology because it will provide
us with things that would be difficult to get otherwise, including
new faculty, new equipment and renovating part of Castetter
Hall to build labs to accommodate new faculty and to support
research projects.
This
grant allows us to build a novel program and it will help us
to build a real international presence in this area, Loker
said.
As part
of the grant, UNM will foster increased connectivity with noted
investigators who have similar interests. The Santa Fe Institute,
which is also a collaborator, will help to foster close ties
among investigators and will serve as a venue for many programmatic
events.
Four mentors
with research areas connected to theoretical and evolutionary
biology are also part of the program including: Luis Cadavid,
assistant professor, biology (evolution of non-self recognition
in marine organisms); Terran Lane, assistant professor, computer
science (exploring similarities between computer and biological
defense systems); William Hlavacek of LANL (modeling of internal
cell signaling pathways associated with immune systems) and
Si Ming Zhang, research assistant professor in biology (study
of the defense systems of snails that transmit human pathogens).
Other projects will likely involve the study of immune systems
of non-traditional mammalian models, including marsupials like
opossums and monotremes like the duck-billed platypus.
Students,
both undergraduate and graduate, with the help of this COBRE
grant, will have increased opportunities for research experience
in state-of-the-art facilities, said Rob Miller, associate
professor and regents lecturer and associate chair of
the Biology Department.