Emory external research funding tops $500 million for third year

Examples of Emory funded research projects in fiscal year 2012:

• $20 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop better treatments for organ transplant recipients, avoiding both organ rejection and drug toxicity.
• $20 million from the National Science Foundation to Emory's Center for Selective C-H Functionalization to bring together scientists from across the country working to revolutionize the field of organic synthesis.
• $8.3 million to Emory from the NIH to create an Autism Center of Excellence with partners Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory Department of Pediatrics, and Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
• $7.5 million for a five-year renewal of the Winship Cancer Institute's National Cancer Institute designation. 
• $30.7 million from the NIH for a five-year renewal of the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute, an Emory-led research partnership with primary academic partners Morehouse School of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology, focused on transforming the quality and value of clinical research and translating results into better patient outcomes.
• $9 million from the NIH for a five-year renewal of the Emory Center for AIDS Research.
• $1.8 million from the NIH to Emory's Center for the Study of Human Health for research on an extract from a tree common in forests across Europe and how it might help fight antibiotic-resistant staph.
• $7 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a vaccine for HIV and AIDS as part of the Centers for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology & Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID).
• $1.5 million from the NIH to Emory's School of Nursing to train nurse scientists to develop innovative clinical interventions for patients with chronic illnesses.
• $4.2 million from the National Cancer Institute to establish the Emory Molecular Interaction Center for Functional Genomics (MicFG), focusing on protein-protein interactions, a promising new dimension of cancer genome and drug discovery.
• $4.5 million to the School of Nursing from the Micronutrient Initiative for a project to improve maternal and newborn survival rates in rural Ethiopia.
• $5 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to use mass spectrometry technology to develop biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk in the blood.
• $6 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), an international network of scientists and experts dedicated to developing an effective vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation to biologist Nicole Gerardo for her research into beneficial bacterial symbionts; astrochemist Susanna Widicus Weaver for her work on molecular clusters; physicist Connie Roth for her research into polymer blends; and to biomedical engineer and pediatric hematologist Wilbur Lam for his research on the biomechanical properties of platelets.

Researchers at Emory University received $520.3 million from external funding agencies in fiscal year 2012, marking the third straight year of greater than half a billion dollars in research funding.

Federal agencies awarded more than $349 million, or 67 percent of the total, led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with $299 million in awards. NIH funding represented 86 percent of total federal dollars awarded to Emory and more than 58 percent of all funding received.

Researchers in Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) received $483.4 million, or approximately 93 percent of the University total. The WHSC includes schools of medicine, public health, nursing, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Winship Cancer Institute and Emory Healthcare.

"We are grateful that federal agencies and other sponsors continue to recognize and invest in Emory to help ensure our continuing contributions to the betterment of society through research and scholarship," says Emory President James W. Wagner. "Sustaining this high level of external funding through competitively awarded grants is a direct reflection of the quality of our research programs and the dedication of our faculty and their team members."

Emory University School of Medicine received $331 million, or approximately 64 percent of the total dollars awarded. The Rollins School of Public Health received nearly $74 million, Yerkes National Primate Research Center received $67 million, and Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing received more than $7 million.

"Our research faculty deserve tremendous credit for their hard work in both applying for grants at a very high rate and for the quality of their research that continues to attract this significant level of external funding," says David S. Stephens, vice president for research in Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center. "Support for biomedical research is essential for cures and progress in treating and preventing diseases, but this could be threatened in the future by possible severe federal budget cuts."

The value of biomedical research extends well beyond new cures and disease treatment and prevention, says Stephens. In Georgia, nearly 19 high-paying jobs are generated per $1 million in research funding, according to a 2011 analysis by United for Medical Research, a coalition representing leading research institutions, patient and health advocates and private industry. And university research discoveries often are translated into commercial applications that positively impact the economy while offering medical advances to patients more quickly.