$6 Million Grant Announced for New Center for Molecular Biophysical Sciences in Maine
| Date: May 6, 2003 | 
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The National Science Foundation has awarded a $6 million grant to The Jackson Laboratory, the University of Maine and Maine Medical Center Research Institute for the establishment of a Center for Molecular Biophysical Sciences. The funds will be used to establish a research partnership between the three institutions and conduct interdisciplinary work leading to better treatment of genetic diseases.
"The economic and social benefits of this research are expected to be extremely high," says Deirdre Mageean, associate vice-president for research and dean of the graduate school at UMaine. "Better understanding of structure/function relationships on a molecular and cellular level will open the way for the treatment of gene based disabilities and diseases. It will also lead to the development of more effective drugs, biological homeland defense, and advances in ecological and environmental sciences."
The grant will expand existing cooperative relationships among the three organizations. Last winter, they established an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in functional genomics.
The primary objective of the new grant is to create a nationally recognized interdisciplinary center for biophysical research and graduate education. Listed as principal investigators are Michael Grunze of UMaine, Barbara Knowles of The Jackson Laboratory and Tom Maciag of MMCRI.
The program will address a need to draw from many scientific disciplines to take advantage of new microscopy and spectroscopy tools, bioinformatics techniques and biosensing methods that focus on investigating the cell nucleus.
An interdisciplinary team of biologists, physicists, chemists, and engineers will work with mathematicians, information technologists and others to improve methods for visualizing and measuring biological processes at the molecular level.
The grant is awarded under the NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR program. Funds will be used to hire new scientists and faculty members and to transfer research results to the private sector to create jobs.
Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058, joyce@jax.org
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600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6051
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org
