UAMS Professor Receives $11.3M Grant

A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences professor has been awarded a $11.3 million federal grant to be distributed over five years that will fund the launch of a Center For Musculoskeletal Disease Research.

The Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant comes from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The professor, Charles O’Brien, Ph.D., said in a news release, “What this funding will allow us to do is bring together a diverse group of investigators who can work as a team that is more than the sum of the parts. The COBRE approach is a proven model. Its participants are more likely to obtain independent federal funding, and it serves as a springboard for innovative, quality research.”

The $11.3 million represents Phase 1 of the COBRE grant and will cover direct as well as indirect costs. It will support the research of four UAMS faculty who are early in their careers and have yet to secure independent research funding.

With approval, COBRE grants can be renewed for up to three phases and researchers could receive up to $30 million.

O’Brien’s team is Dr. Elena Ambrogini, Dr. Jinhu Xiong, Niels Weinhold, Ph.D, and Srividhya Iyer, Ph.D.

The team will also receive help through the grant program with applying for their own research funding. Once the researchers secure a certain level of funding — an NIH Research Project Grant (R01) or similar level — they are considered “graduated” from the COBRE and their spot is opened to make room for another junior researcher.

In addition, UAMS faculty lead five other COBRE-funded centers at UAMS and the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute:

• The Center for Translational Neuroscience led by Edgar Garcia-Rill, Ph.D. — $22.5 million. The center is in its third and final phase.
• The Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Inflammatory Responses led by Mark Smeltzer, Ph.D. — $21 million. It’s in Phase II.
• The Center for Studies of Host Response to Cancer Therapy led by Dr. Martin Hauer-Jensen — $10.5 million. It’s in Phase I.
• The Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention led by Judith Weber, Ph.D. — $9.4 million. It’s in Phase I.
• The Center for Translational Pediatric Research leb by Alan Tackett, Ph.D. — $11.5 million. It’s in Phase I.