The University of New Mexico is one of four national universities chosen to share $12.8 million in grants to establish integrative training environments for doctoral students to study nanoscience and technology with applications for cancer research. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the awards recently.
NCI is collaborating with NSF to train doctoral students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to address the need for a pool of scientists trained across the disciplines that specifically encompass cancer nanotechnology.
The program titled, “Integrative Nanoscience and Microsystems at UNM,” will involve as many as 30 faculty members and support approximately 10 students each year. The program is an inter-campus collaboration between the University of New Mexico's Center for High Technology Materials, the School of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences and the UNM Cancer Research and Treatment Center. The principal investigator is Diana Huffaker, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“This award provides an opportunity to leverage the growing nanotechnology infrastructure in the Rio Grande corridor and will create an education and training component in nanoscience that is unique from any other in the country, “ said Huffaker. “Nanoscience is a core thrust of the UNM administration and the award will unify existing infrastructure and research efforts at our Center for High Technology Materials and across campus. It also serves as an ongoing catalyst for curriculum development in support of our new nanoscience and microsystems Ph.D. program.”
The NCI/NSF collaboration is awarding grants to four institutions over the next five years, through NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT). The IGERT program, initiated in 1997, is ideally suited to cancer nanobiotechnology training, based on its mission and track record in interdisciplinary training support. All of the four funded projects are linked to regional cancer centers and the biomedical research community. In addition to the University of New Mexico, IGERT-funded institutions are Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; Northeastern University, Boston, Mass, and University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
"Some of the most exciting and significant applications of nanoscience and microsystems will be in health care,” said Joseph Cecchi, dean of the School of Engineering. “We are very pleased that the NCI has recognized this by funding Professor Huffaker's creative proposal that brings together science, engineering, and medicine at UNM."
Nanotechnology for biomedical applications involves elements of numerous disciplines that have traditionally worked independently. For the past seven years, NCI has taken the lead in integrating nanotechnology into biomedical research through a variety of programs. The results of these efforts have demonstrated clearly that melding nanotechnology, cancer research and development efforts will have a profound, effect on how to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.
“This is an unusual and important opportunity,” said Larry Sklar, Ph.D., professor of Pathology at the UNM Health Sciences Center and one of several investigators participating in the New Mexico project. “This program formalizes the emerging partnership between our engineering and biomedical research at UNM and provides the pathway for building relationships that will lead to new discoveries.”
Contact: Greg Johnston, (505) 277-1816
Posted by scarr at September 26, 2005 04:09 PM